Media Play Optimization

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and a user interface for automatically scheduling a media play is disclosed. The user can specify criteria for play of the media play, including times, stations, and/or external criteria such as a weather condition or the occurrence of an event. Information relevant to the entered criteria is received and assessed against the criteria to determine if the criteria are met. Responsive to the received information meeting the criteria for play of the media play, an accessor accesses the media play inventory and inserts the media play into a media feed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/445,768, filed Jun. 1, 2006, entitled “Media Play Optimization,”which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 60/686,535, “System and Method for MediaPlay Optimization,” filed Jun. 1, 2005, the subject matters of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to broadcasting and online media, and moreparticularly to systems for selling, scheduling and tracking mediaplays.

BACKGROUND

Audio advertisers spend great sums of money and countless hours toproduce advertising campaigns aimed at maximizing the response from thelisteners. By tailoring the advertising media, the timing of the audioplay, the content of the advertisement, and many other variables,advertisers can influence who will or is likely to hear the advertisingmessage. In this way, audio advertisers can concentrate their efforts onreaching the listeners who are most likely to respond to theiradvertising message. Generally, advertisers are willing to pay moremoney for advertising slots that allow them to deliver their message tothe most members of their target audience. Because advertisers have alimited budget and limited time to manage campaigns, they are eager toidentify which campaigns are effective and, perhaps more importantly,which are not.

At the same time, broadcasters rely on advertising revenues from sellingadvertising air time to cover operational expenses. Thus, it is to thebroadcaster's advantage to sell all available advertising air time inorder to maximize income. Unfortunately, a significant portion of theavailable advertising air time is not sold due market demand factors,poor ratings, station inefficiencies, trafficking logistics, programminglogistics, and other factors. In fact, radio stations, for example,often operate with daily unsold advertising inventory that accounts, onaverage, for up to 30% of the total advertising air time. This unpaidair time has traditionally been filled with public serviceadvertisements, bonus advertisements, remnant advertisements and/orlow-priority advertisements.

SUMMARY

One embodiment of the present invention is directed to a system foroptimizing play of media content. The system includes a hub that is atleast partially remote from a media content play point. The hub accessesand instructs a forwarding of the media content for play. At least oneoutput associated with the hub contributes non-play content, and atleast one module at the media content play point parses the non-playcontent. The parsed non-play content enables the hub to instruct apreemption of a first of the media play content with an accessing andinsertion of a second of the media play content to the media contentplay point.

In another embodiment, the present invention also includes a userinterface for scheduling media plays. The user can specify, via the userinterface, criteria for play of the media play, including times,stations, and/or external criteria such as a weather condition or theoccurrence of an event. Information relevant to the selected criteria isreceived and assessed against the criteria to determine if the criteriaare met. Responsive to the received information meeting the criteria forplay of the media play, an accessor accesses the media play inventoryand inserts the media play into a media feed.

According to one aspect of the invention, the criteria for play of themedia play can include a targeted response to a previous media play. Forexample, information regarding the number of phone calls, website hits,coupons used, or sales in response to a previous media play can be usedas criteria to determine what to play in the future.

It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the presentinvention have been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevantfor a clear understanding of the present invention, while eliminating,for the purposes of clarity, many other elements found in a typicalinventory tracking system. Those of ordinary skill in the pertinent artwill recognize that other elements are desirable and/or required inorder to implement the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture of a communication system 100according to an aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 2 further illustrates the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates a local proxy according to an aspect of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a direct connection according to an aspect of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an advertising buying environment in thepresent invention.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a radio play environment.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of a radio play environment.

FIG. 8 illustrations a schematic diagram of the flow of informationwithin the communication system of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIGS. 9A-O are illustrations of a buying interface.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an example campaign summary.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of a search interface.

FIG. 12 is an architecture diagram showing data passing between a datacenter and radio stations in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing elements used to scheduleadvertisements in a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 shows example formats of data tables used in an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 15A is a flow chart showing a method used by a campaign manager ina guaranteed campaign.

FIG. 15B is a flow chart showing a method used by a campaign manager inan open campaign.

FIG. 16A is a flow chart showing a method determining which creative toplay in accordance with criterion entered by the advertiser and areceived external value.

FIG. 16B is a flow chart showing a campaign manager bidding differingamounts in accordance with a criterion, such as an external criterion.

FIG. 17A is a flow chart showing an example method of determining a bidbased on feedback from previous plays of a campaign creative in a CPI orCPI with minimum CPM campaign type.

FIG. 17B is a flow chart showing an example method of determining a bidbased on feedback from previous plays of a campaign creative in a CPMcampaign type.

A person skilled in the art will readily recognize from the followingdiscussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methodsillustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principlesof the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the presentinvention have been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevantfor a clear understanding of the present invention, while eliminating,for the purpose of clarity, many other elements found in typicalcommunication system and method of using the same. Those of ordinaryskill in the art may recognize that other elements and/or steps aredesirable and/or required in implementing the present invention.However, because such elements and steps are well known in the art, andbecause they do not facilitate a better understanding of the presentinvention, a discussion of such elements and steps is not providedherein. The disclosure herein is directed to all such variations andmodifications to such elements and methods known to those skilled in theart.

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a system and methodfor scheduling the broadcast of an audio advertisement according tospecified criteria with the goal of improving the listener response tothe advertising message. The present invention may provide acommunication environment configured to monitor and track a specificadvertisement or program.

FIG. 1 shows an example architecture of a communication system 100according to an aspect of the present invention. Communication system100 may include a network 110 to communicatively couple third-party datasources 120, at least one subscriber 130, at least one regionalbroadcast studio 140, and a broadcasting hub 150. In a radio broadcastimplementation, at least one regional studio 140 may be furthercommunicatively coupled to at least one radio transmitter 160.

As shown in FIG. 1, the network 110 is the Internet. In otherimplementations, the network 110 can be any network, such as a LAN, aMAN, a WAN, a wired or wireless network, a private network, or a virtualprivate network.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, third-party data sources can be anydatabase, data mart, or other data source that provides data of interestto a subscriber 130 relevant to the scheduling of their advertisement.For example, the third-party data may be Arbitron ratings anddemographic breakdowns for each station in a broadcast network. Inaddition, third-party data may be the weather forecast, current weatherconditions, or news events such as stock prices, sports scores, datafrom a syndicated data feed such as an RSS feed, or any other datarelevant to a subscriber's desire to play an advertisement. In anotherembodiment, information or data is received or collected directly by thebroadcasting hub 150 rather than from third-party sources. Regardless ofthe source, the broadcasting hub 150 uses the information in evaluatingwhether criteria are met for the play of an advertisement.

A subscriber 130 is also communicatively coupled to the broadcasting hub150. This allows the subscriber 130 to purchase, schedule, and upload anadvertising spot using a user interface of the broadcasting hub 150 thatis described in detail below. Subscriber 130 may access hub 150 via aconnection to internet 110. The connection to internet 110 may be anyconventional connection that allows access to hub 150. For example,subscriber 130 may access hub 150 using TCP/IP and a conventionaldial-up connection over a modem, or a dedicated connection that providesconstant access. Hub 150 may have a unique HyperText Transfer Protocol(HTTP) address, a unique FTP address, or any other addressing schemethat allows subscriber 130 to identify hub 150. Subscribers 130 can beadvertisers, agencies, stations, or any other entity that interacts withthe broadcasting hub 150. In some embodiments subscribers 150 have anaccount with the broadcasting hub 150 and are charged a fee for use ofthe broadcasting hub 150. In other embodiments, subscribers can accessthe broadcasting hub 150 free of charge.

A regional broadcast studio 140 is also communicatively coupled to thebroadcasting hub 150, such that the broadcasting hub 150 is capable offorwarding an advertisement to the regional broadcast studio 140 forplay. Thus, a subscriber 130 is capable of submitting to thebroadcasting hub 150 an advertisement for play along with specificcriteria for the play of that advertisement, and the broadcasting hub150 will forward the advertisement to a regional broadcasting studio 140for play as appropriate.

Stations may desire and may be able to isolate themselves from theinternet for a myriad of reasons. According to an aspect of the presentinvention and pursuant to what is currently deemed best practice forradio stations, stations may isolate mission critical on-air workstations from the public internet. Specifically, the present system mayenable on-air workstations to connect securely to a data center over theinternet without the on-air workstation being connected directly to theinternet. Such a configuration may be achieved by using encryption andsecure protocols, including, but not limited to outbound-originatingprotocols.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the identification ofwhen a radio advertisement or radio program was broadcast may beachieved. This identification may be performed within the broadcastinghub 150. Within hub 150 a data collector may identify verification ofbroadcast information related to an audio file associated with anadvertising campaign or radio program, and may forward that informationto networked environment 110. Hub 150 may include software fortabulating and formatting the information into a serviceable report,such as in response to a request by subscriber 130. The information in,for example, such a report, may be presented based on many differentcriteria, such as, for example, the total number of advertising orprogramming broadcasts per campaign, a listing of which stations theradio advertisement or program was broadcast over, an hourly breakdownof the broadcasts, the demographics of the broadcast audience, thegeography of the broadcast audience, and/or the format of the radiostations.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the reports availableto subscriber 130 may reflect the latest information available. Theverification of broadcast information may be forwarded from the datacollector to networked environment 110, such as when the verification ofbroadcast information becomes available from broadcast hub 150. Such asubstantially real-time report may provide subscriber 130 withsubstantially real-time data regarding the delivery of radioadvertisements and radio programs. In other embodiments, a substantiallyreal-time report may provide subscriber 130 with real-time dataregarding the delivery of advertisements or other media plays over VoIP,internet streaming, or other media.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the verification ofbroadcast information associated with advertising campaigns or programsmay be combined with other information, and may be stored in additionaldatabases or memories either resident on or accessible by network 110,to produce reports of demographic information about the audience of theadvertising campaign or program. Such other information for combinationwith the verification information may be obtained, for example, fromrelevant internet or intranet sites, either automatically in response toan instruction included with the submission of the program to bebroadcast, or manually upon receipt of a subscriber request.

In order to more fully describe the interconnectivity, an exemplaryembodiment is set forth herein below. FIG. 2 shows a system according toan aspect of the present invention. Subscriber 130 may conduct one ormore advertising campaigns by purchasing audio advertisements acrossseveral local and regional radio stations, for example. Subscriber 130may distribute audio commercials to the radio stations for scheduling bya regional broadcast studio 140. Subscriber 130 may verify the deliveryand track the broadcast of each of the one or more advertising campaignsand associated audio commercials. It may be beneficial for subscriber130 to engineer the one or more advertising campaigns with a unique andcorresponding file name. In this regard, each audio commercial digitalfile may have a subscriber-associated unique file name. The audio filesassociated with the advertising campaigns are referred to in thisdiscussion as “campaign creative.”

Regional broadcast studio 140 may broadcast a campaign creative forsubscriber 130. Regional broadcast studio 140 may initiate a broadcastof the campaign creative by scheduling broadcast delivery within itstrafficking system 210 or programming system 220. The campaign creativemay be loaded onto radio automation software 230 of station 140. Radioautomation software 230 may include the scheduling and/or “flight”information as provided by trafficking system 210 and programming system220. Broadcast hub 150 may forward scheduling information regarding thecampaign creative, captured from radio automation software 230, to datacollector. In one embodiment, at the scheduled time, radio automationsoftware 230 may stream the campaign creative to a station transmitter160 for subsequent broadcast over the air. Broadcast hub 150 may forwardverification of broadcast information regarding the campaign creative,captured from radio automation software 230, to data collector. The datacollector may accumulate and/or store the information passed frombroadcast hub 150.

According to an aspect of the present invention, data collector mayisolate the verification of broadcast information related to campaignidentifiers, for example, by including a table identifying the campaignidentifiers. When verification of broadcast information arrivesregarding one of the campaign identifiers in the campaign identifiertable, the data collector may forward that verification of broadcastinformation (“campaign information”) to hub 150. The data collector mayforward the campaign information as it arrives, or on a timed basis,such as in fifteen minute increments, one-hour increments, several-hourincrements, or other increment known to those skilled in the pertinentarts. The rate at which the campaign information is passed from the datacollector to hub 150 may limit how current, or real-time, a report maybe. In this regard, the data collector according to an aspect of thepresent invention may be configured to provide the campaign informationto hub 150 in real-time, such as not later than a few hours after thecampaign information becomes available at the data collector. A portionof hub 150 may include a web server that receives the verification ofbroadcast information associated with each campaign identifier (thecampaign information) from the data collector and stores thatinformation on a permanent storage medium, such as a hard disk drive.The web server may tabulate the campaign information based on eachcampaign identifier. The table containing the campaign information maybe as current as the rate at which the data collector provides thecampaign information to the web server. Consequently, hub 150 via theweb server may be able to generate reports of the broadcast of radioadvertisements and radio programming in substantially real-time.

Hub 150 may provide access to the tabulated data over internet 110.Although internet 110 may be described as a wide area network for makingthe reports available to subscribers, those skilled in the art willappreciate that the system and method of the present inventionencompasses any wide area network that allows access by subscribers todata stored on hub 150.

Hub 150 may include server software, such as within a web server, thatmay allow subscriber 130 to request a report of a particular radioadvertisement broadcast or radio program broadcast at any time. Forexample, subscriber 130 may connect to internet 110 in the middle of theday on a Tuesday. At that time, subscriber 130 may log on to hub 150using a secure access protocol and issue a request to the web server toprovide a report. The issued request identifies the particular radioadvertisement or radio program of interest by campaign identifier. Hub150 may respond to the request by reading the data stored in the tableof campaign information associated with the campaign identifier providedby subscriber 130. Software resident on the web server may tabulate thereport in accordance with the request. Finally, the web serverpublishes, such as in HTML or XML format, for example, the report tosubscriber 130. In this manner, subscriber 130 may access and query theweb server as frequently as desired to determine the broadcast of aparticular advertising campaign or radio program.

Hub 150 and the web server may be configured to transmit reports tosubscriber 130 at predetermined intervals, such as immediately, hourly,daily, weekly, or other time frame. For instance, software may beconfigured to simulate a subscriber request and cause the web server togenerate and transmit the report to subscriber 130. Alternative means ofdelivery may also be employed, such as via electronic mail. These andother alternatives will become apparent to those skilled in the art upona study of the disclosed embodiments.

Hub 150 and the web server may be configured to generate the report inresponse to a triggering event. Examples of such a triggering event maybe a confirmation of broadcast for a select advertisement or program, orof a situation wherein an advertisement or program was scheduled tobroadcast, but failed to deliver, or of an advertising campaign reachinga dollar cap value, for example. For instance, the web server may beconfigured to analyze the campaign information as it is received fromthe data collector. If the campaign information reflects that anadvertisement with a specified campaign identifier was scheduled tobroadcast at a certain time, but failed to broadcast, the web server mayrespond by issuing a flag to subscriber 130. According to an aspect ofthe present invention, the web server may be configured to extract fromthe campaign information the advertising client's telephone number,email, fax, or the like associated with the campaign identifier andtransmit the broadcast information directly to subscriber 130 or someoneassociated with the subscriber, such as to follow up on the failedbroadcast. The campaign information may be transmitted by digital orvoice pager, by e-mail message, by human interaction, or by any othermechanism for alerting subscriber 130. In that manner, subscriber 130may be substantially immediately notified that an advertisement failedto broadcast, and be provided with the radio station's contactinformation and advertising client information.

A myriad of reports can be created. By way of non-limiting example only,such reports may include campaign delivery by station, campaign deliveryby market, campaign delivery by date, campaign delivery by hour,broadcast failure, and demographic reports. A campaign delivery bystation report may identify upon which station a selected radioadvertisement or radio program was broadcast. This report may enablesubscriber 130 to verify delivery across a certain station, or within anassociated geographic region. A campaign delivery by market report mayidentify the geographic market across which the campaign was broadcast.This report may enable subscriber 130 to verify delivery and coveragewithin a certain market. A campaign delivery by date report may providesubscriber 130 with per-day totals of broadcasts associated with aspecified campaign. Subscriber 130 may use this type of report to easilyidentify those days with the heaviest advertising and programmingresponse, such as for support planning purposes. A campaign delivery byhour report may provide subscriber 130 with per-hour totals ofbroadcasts associated with a specified campaign. Subscriber 130 may usethis type of report to identify those dayparts with the heaviestadvertising and programming response for support planning purposes. Abroadcast failure report may provide subscriber 130 with a listing ofthe campaigns that were scheduled but failed to broadcast. Thisinformation allows subscriber 130 to attempt to manage sales support,and take action to remedy failure. A demographic report may be provided.For example, the advertising campaign, broadcast across a specificmarket, may be mapped to area code or zip code to provide subscriber 130with a broad overview of geographic locations of the receiving broadcastaudience. Additional databases, such as those available from Censusinformation, may be employed to generate financial, ethnic, andage-related demographic information which may be of use to subscriber130.

Networking models may be designed to minimize the impact on existingnetwork configurations. For examples, two prevalent radio automationsystems found in the industry are Scott Studios and Maestro. Connectionto each of these legacy systems without necessitating the redesign ofeither system may be beneficial.

Any networking model may be used, such as a local proxy or localconnection, for example. Connecting using a local proxy need not requireinternet connectivity, and instead may require only connection to alocal area network (LAN). One computer on the LAN may have two networkcards, one of which communicates with the local proxy which in turncommunicates with the data center via an encrypted/unencryptedoutbound-originating connection. On the other hand a direct connectionmay require on-air workstations to have internet connectivity and mayprovide an outbound-originating connection to the data center.

As may be seen in FIG. 3, a local proxy may provide anencrypted/unencrypted connection to the data center and a reduction inthe overall network traffic. Local proxy may use the Scott Studios andMaestro along with the local proxy to create an encrypted/unencryptedand secure connection to the data center. For this to happen, ScottStudios or Maestro may be present on each of the on-air automationworkstations along with a local proxy module within the network. Toestablish the encrypted/unencrypted connection with the data center, themodules may rely on the station to have a dedicated internal automationsystem LAN and a separate corporate LAN with internet connectivity.There may also be one machine that is multi-homed, meaning it has twonetwork cards and is aware of both networks. In most installations, themulti-homed machine is usually a dispatch computer or a server. Thisconfiguration has been and continues to be a hardware deployment byScott Studios with both modules and hardware/network configuration inplace, the Scott Studios and Maestro will automatically attempt toconnect to the local proxy. Local proxy may, in turn, attempt toestablish an encrypted/unencrypted connection with the data center.Local proxy may be designed to make use of the default network settingsof the multi-homed machine for both the automation system LAN and thecorporate LAN. Therefore, these network settings may remain largelyunchanged. Additionally, the local proxy need not rely on a host name toconnect to the data center but rather uses an IP address, therefore noDNS configuration should be necessary. Local proxy network settings maybe modified if any of the default settings have been changed to blockoutbound internet traffic from the multi-homed machine over thecorporate LAN or if inbound traffic from the automation system LAN hasbeen blocked to the multi-homed computer. If these defaults have beenmodified, additional changes may be needed, such as: the multi-homedcomputer connecting outbound to the internet over the corporate LAN,such as on port 443 (HTTPS), for example; the multi-homed computerconnecting outbound to the internet over the corporate LAN, such as onport 10,000, for example; the multi-homed computer connecting outboundto the internet over the corporate LAN, such as on port 80, for example;on-air workstations connecting outbound over the internal automationsystem LAN to the multi-homed computer, such as on port 10,000, forexample; multi-homed computer accepting inbound traffic from theinternal automation system LAN, such as on port 10,000, for example.Under such a configuration local proxy module may use specific ports todirect encrypted/unencrypted outbound-originating traffic over theinternet. For example, ports 443 (HTTPS) and 10,000 may be used fortransmitting encrypted/unencrypted station information and modulecontrol traffic. Selection between these ports may be optimized topreserve system resources. Port 80 may be used for downloadingunencrypted media files from the data center. After configuring astation's network, the on-air automation workstations may connect to thedata center through the local proxy module automatically.

As may be seen in FIG. 4, direct connection may be used for stations andstation clusters that do not follow the automation system hardwaredeployment recommended for Scott Studios and Maestro equipment, stationsthat already have internet connectivity at each on-air workstation, orfor stations that either cannot or choose not to deploy the local proxymodel. Direct connection may use the Scott Studios and Maestro Moduleson each on-air work station to create a secure connection to the datacenter. To establish the secure connection with the data center, eachon-air automation workstation may have access to a network with a directconnection to the internet. With the proper communication modulesinstalled and an internet connection present, the modules mayautomatically attempt to connect out to the data center. Directconnection may be designed to make use of the default network settingsof the on-air workstations and instead of relying on host names toconnect to the data center may use an IP address. As would be evident tothose possessing an ordinary skill in the pertinent arts, using an IPaddress may prevent the need for a DNS configuration. On-airworkstations may connect outbound to the internet over the corporateLAN, such as on port 10,000, for example. On-air workstations mayconnect outbound to the internet over the corporate LAN, such as on port80, for example. Direct connection may use these specific ports todirect encrypted/unencrypted outbound-originating traffic over theinternet. For example, HTTP traffic may be sent on port 80 and may beused for transmitting station information and for downloading mediafiles from the data center. Port 10,000 may be used for transmittingcommunications information. Once the station's network has beenconfigured, the on-air automation workstations may connect directly tothe data center automatically.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an advertising buying environment in thepresent invention. FIG. 5 illustrates a local, a national, and a networkadvertising buyer. Of note, the local buyer buys individual ads onparticular stations. The national buyer can pinpoint specific buyswithin a particular group of affiliate radio stations. Alternatively, anational buyer can directly or indirectly contact individual stations todo multiple local buys where the buys are not within a particular group.The network buyer buys advertising for all affiliates within a network,such as in a radio syndication show environment. In the illustratedembodiment, an advertising buyer buys an insertion order, and theadvertiser request correspondent to the purchase order goes into“traffic”. Radio traffic is scheduled by the trafficking system 210. Forexample, based on an advertiser request, the trafficking system 210 mayschedule the play of a particular ad in three slots at three assignedtimes each day during the weekdays of Monday through Friday. Obviously,once advertising inventory builds, conflicts arise between advertisingrequests, particularly during rush hour or high desirability playtimes.

To address these conflicts, in one embodiment the trafficking system 210shuffles the requested advertising to maximize the revenue generatedfrom particular ads at particular times (of course, advertising atpremium times and on premium days brings premium revenue). Thetrafficking system 210 compiles a list of items to be played, whereineach item on the list is assigned a cut number that links the plays onthe list together. In one embodiment, a text file consisting of thetraffic log is manually reconciled at least once per day.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a radio play environment 600. Theenvironment of FIG. 6 includes a traffic log 660 such as that discussedabove, a program log 662, a merge application 664, an automation forplay 666, a master schedule 668, a play log 669, and may include remoteapplications, including external inputs 620 such as voice tracking,satellite, and FTP, for example. The traffic log 660, the program log662, and the master schedule 668 as illustrated preferably includeidentifications of the plays that are to occur in accordance with each.

The traffic log 660 is such as that handled by the trafficking system210 as discussed hereinabove. The program log 662 may include programs,such as songs, that are to be played over the air. The master schedule668 may include a validation of the media to be played, such asverification that the identification numbers included in the traffic log660 and program log 662 are valid play items. In a typical embodiment,the merge application 664 merges the traffic log 660 and the program log662 and manages the filling of any holes, such as by the automation 666,to create the master schedule 668. The master schedule 668 is directedto the automation 666, and the automation 666 monitors the inputs andoutputs to and from the radio station for play over airwaves. The playlog 669 is generated based on the output of the automation as thatoutput is generated over the airwaves. The output of the play log 669may be monitored before billing to advertisers to ensure that ads haveproperly been played by the automation 666.

In the embodiment discussed above, the automation 666 controls the finaloutput over the airwaves of a radio play. The automation 666 may switchfor example from a satellite channel to a local channel, or to aninternet channel, and back again to obtain play from various locationsfor incorporation into the automation 666 play. Such plays, as receivedby the automation 666, may include a metadata channel that does notinclude the radio plays, but rather includes information regarding theradio plays in the traffic log. For example, a metadata channel mayinfer that a remote radio feed is about to have a “hard break” or a“soft break”. A soft break is one which is at the option of, forexample, a radio personality, and a hard break is non-optional. As such,in an exemplary embodiment, a syndicated radio show may arrive for localplay in the form of a compact disc, or may arrive by a satellite to theautomation and may include a metadata channel including the informationregarding the satellite play. Consequently, in an embodiment wherein theplay originates from a remote point, the metadata channel may allow fora local station to insert particular items for an otherwise remotelygenerated play. In such an embodiment, the automation 666 may switchback to the local play generation point for a limited set time, duringwhich the local play point may generate local play items into theotherwise remotely generated play. Upon completion of the metadatainstructed local play period, the automation 666 may switch back to, forexample, the satellite channel for a renewal of the remote play. Assuch, in some embodiments of present radio applications, all plays, fromall locations, are controlled by the automation 666, and further, theautomation 666 provides validation, via the play log 669, that all playshave properly occurred.

In certain embodiments, the traffic log 660 fed to the automation 666may include one or more “dummy” files. Such “dummy” file positions caninclude the place holders that allow for mapping of information, such asmapping of remote information over the internet and/or via FTP. Such amapping may include the bundling of remote files and/or local files intoa mapped position. Such mapped positions are not held as open, butrather are held as closed play positions in spite of the fact that it isunknown to the local automation 666 precisely what plays will occur inthe position of the “dummy” file.

Further, ads may be inserted via channel switching instructions fed overone or more metadata channels. For example, a plurality of regional ads,each dedicated to specific one or more regions of the country, may besimultaneously playing on a series of channels incoming to theautomation 666, such as channels 4 through 8. A syndicated radio programmay be playing simultaneously on, for example, channel 3 incoming to theautomation 666. Upon the occurrence of a break, in accordance with thetraffic log 660 and metadata channels, on channel 3, the metadatachannel may include instructions for each region to switch during thebreak to its correspondent incoming regionalized advertising channel.For example, a station playing the syndicated program on channel 3 inPhiladelphia, Pa. may be instructed to switch, via the metadata channel,to channel 4 during a break in the program of channel 3 in order to playa regionalized ad on channel 4. Simultaneously, and during the samebreak on the program of channel 3, a station in Los Angeles, Calif. maybe instructed, via the metadata, to switch to channel 8 in order to playregionalized advertising for that region then playing on channel 8. Insuch an embodiment, upon completion of a break on channel 3, allstations then participating in a syndicated play of channel 3 areinstructed via the metadata to have the automation 666 switch back tochannel 3 for continuation of the syndicated play. Similarly,advertising may be cashed on a particular channel to play in aparticular order, and, when a break occurs on the channel then playing,a switch may be made to the cashed advertising channel to allow forwhatever numbers of cashed ads to play that are capable of play duringan allotted break window on the play channel. Upon closure of the breakon the play channel, the automation 666 may be instructed to switch froma cashed advertising channel back to the play channel, and may pick upon the next switch to the advertising channel with the next keyed cashedadvertisement.

In an embodiment, metadata may be shipped on a particular channel, andprogramming may be shipped on a plurality of other channels. In such anembodiment, the metadata channel may be keyed to the play occurring onanother channel and the metadata itself may call for insertion of dataon the metadata channel or another channel onto the current play channelwhen a break, such as a soft break, occurs according to the metadatachannel. Upon the occurrence of such a break in accordance with themetadata channel, a local feed may, for example, insert localadvertising onto the current play channel, such as via switching to alocal channel for the duration of the break according to the metadatachannel.

Switching of the automation 666 in accordance with the switchingpolicies described hereinabove, allows for a preemption of a radio play.In existing play embodiments, if a break is called for at a particulartime, such as at noon on a Friday, the channel on which the break is tooccur must be continuously monitored, and the metadata of the channel onwhich the break is to occur must be continuously monitored, to ensurethat the break occurs at the prescribed time. In embodiments describedherein, a monitoring of, for example, channels such as the metadatachannel may occur in real time, and as such assigned time plays,particularly of advertising or information spots, are no longernecessary. In particular, a monitoring of the metadata channel, evenduring a play incoming remotely on a separate channel, providessufficient information to switch to an advertising or alternative playchannel in accordance with the incoming metadata. Thus, in priorembodiments, the knowledge of the occurrence of a break must bepre-existent, and any movement of that break must be monitored. However,in embodiments discussed herein, no pre-existent knowledge of breaks isnecessary. Rather, in embodiments discussed herein, the system of thepresent invention learns and gains knowledge of when preemption is tooccur, and elects the proper preemption in real time based on the breakthen occurring as it occurs during the play. As such, traditionalmethods and systems merely inserts at a defined time, while in someembodiments, the system described herein preempts in real time based onlearning from the programming as it is playing.

In order to allow for a proper learning and preemption, the presentinvention may include a learning module and a preemption module, whichmodules may be placed at any of a plurality of points within the radioplay system discussed hereinabove. For example, the modules may beplaced at the traffic log 660, at the master schedule 668, at the mergeapplication 664, or at the automation 666. However, because the modulescan be used to replace unsold or underpaid advertising spots with morelucrative advertising spots, the operation of a rule set from within themodules can be available at the point of placement of the modules.Consequently, although the modules may be placed within the traffic log660 or master schedule 668, advertising payment rate data is nottypically available at either location, and cannot be used to operate ateither location without being affected by the merge 664. Further,placement of the modules at the merge 664 might allow the rules of themerge 664 to replace certain unsold or otherwise empty play spots withsongs, or other information, thus eliminating the ability of the modulesto replace the unsold or otherwise empty spots with more lucrativeadvertising. Consequently, it may be highly useful to place the moduleswithin or in association with the automation 666, in order to allow theautomation 666 to follow a series of metadata rules on the replacementand reevaluation of a merged traffic log.

Modules placed within the automation 666 may allow for a remote viewingof the real time automated play, in order to allow for real timereevaluation of the current play, and a comparison of the evaluation ofthe current play with a locally or remotely located rate and rate timechart, and for modification or replacement, via preemption, ofinformation in the real time play list. Such preemptions may be based oncost rules or other rules applied through the add-in module or modulesto the automation 666.

However, since estimated times for plays as assessed at the merge 664may vary in accordance with the delays inherent in a radio play, themodules cannot use time estimates, or play identification estimates toassess proper preemption locations. Therefore, the modules maypreferably have available a secondary feed showing real time output dataof the plays occurring on a radio location then being monitored by themodules. As such, the modules may estimate a proper play location forpreemption, and may then monitor to ensure that the preemption locationreceives preemption at the proper point. This secondary feed showingreal time plays may be received from a variety of locations. Forexample, the play log 669 may be monitored in real time to assess theplays then occurring. However, even the play log 669 may be subject tocertain delays or flaws, and as such may not give a true illustration ofreal time plays. Alternatively, the modules may view, from within theautomation 666 itself, real time play inventory requests as they occur.For example, the automation 666 may call a particular play from a givenlocation at a given time and that location and time may be viewed by themodules and compared with the play list in order to assess, preciselyand in real time, the comparison of the play list with the play thenoccurring, and any preemptions may be modified according to any delaysor improprieties assessed.

In an additional embodiment, because the merge 664 may eliminate much ofany available unsold or empty play slots, it may be preferable to insertthe modules at the merge 664, rather than waiting for the automation 666to occur. However, in such an embodiment, the merge 664 would stillrequire availability of, among other things, rate listings and the ratesof currently assigned plays. Further, because play does not occur fromthe merge 664 but rather occurs from the automation 666, a built-indelay would need to be assessed from the automation 666 back to themerge 664, in order to allow a real time monitoring of inventoryrequests at the automation 666 to be applied to the modules performingpreemption back at the merge 664. Further, the modules, whether at themerge 664 or at the automation 666, may be subject to any number oflocal or remote rules. The availability of such rules at the merge 664may allow for the variation of preemption rates at the merge 664,thereby allowing the merge 664 to vary the amount of unsold or emptyslots filled by the merge 664, such as by dependence on the time or day.For example, it may be more cost effective to a given station to fillmore unsold or empty slots during rush hour than during the remainder ofthe day, because rush hour may bring higher premium rates fromadvertisers. As such, the amount of unsold or empty slots desired to befilled during rush hour at the merge 664 may be higher from the radiostation viewpoint, or may be lower from an advertiser's viewpoint, basedon the controller of the modules performing preemption at the merge 664.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of media play capabilities, wherein themedia played is varied based on the status of certain external factorsas provided by information input to the hub 750, and/or based on theactions of one or more receivers of media that was played. As usedherein, the terms “radio content” and “broadcast” or “broadcast content”include any type of media that may be presented via audio, visual, orcomputerized output to one or more receivers of the output, and that ispresently programmed or preprogrammed for media play. As used herein,the terms “nonradio content”, or “nonbroadcast” or “broadcastnonspecific content”, include any media that may be presented via audio,visual, or computerized output to one or more receivers of the content,for example via a media feed, and that is not presently programmed orpreprogrammed for media play. As used herein, the term “media feed”includes any transmission of any media to one or more receivers of themedia, including but not limited to terrestrial or satellite radiobroadcasts; voice over IP; internet streaming; podcasts; webpages; andvideo games with a communication connection, such as console, online andhandheld video games; video players with a communication connection; andmobile phones. As used herein, the term “media play” refers to theaudio, visual or computerized output transmitted in the media feed.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, a hub 750 can also access a variety of content770, including nonradio and radio content. Such content 770 may be localto the hub 750, or may be available to the hub 750 from any of a varietyof sources, including but not limited to intranet, internet, satellitechannel, FTP or zipped files that may be accessed by the hub 750 inaccordance with one or more commands associated with the hub 750directing media play 772. The hub 750 may have multiple portions. Morespecifically, the hub 750 may be any number of modules resident at anynumber of locations, so long as all such locations are accessible by atleast one module resident at the location from which the media play 772is to occur.

Further, the hub 750 can also access a plurality of secondaryinformation 774, certain of which information 774 may be available inreal time. The information 774 may be relevant to criteria for the playof certain advertisements, and may be data from a third-party datasource 120, for example. In various embodiments, the information 774comprises current weather conditions, weather forecasts, temperature,pollen counts, precipitation, current events, sports scores, broadcasttopics/radio guests, terror-alert color, traffic conditions, stockmarket data, interest rates, gas prices, or other financial indicators,or any other information 774 available to the hub 750 that is relevantto deciding when listeners 773 would be most receptive to a media playmessage and most likely to undertake a targeted response 777. Examplesof the use of this information 774 in scheduling advertisements aredescribed herein below with reference to the user interface.

In a specific exemplary embodiment, the hub 750 can access a play list776 for at least one radio studio in at least one marketing region.Multiple radio stations may be available to a single hub 750, and amarketing region may be any geographic region including but not limitedto a city, a county, or state, for example. In this embodiment, the hub750 may, in part, direct the play list 776 of the one or more radiostations, such as by preempting that which was to be played by the radiostation in accordance with the play list 776 with an intelligentinsertion that is more likely to bring success in accordance with thepredetermined criteria than would the preempted play on the play list776.

In this example, the play list 776 of a radio station may generallyinclude advertising plays and music plays. As will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art, listenership generally decreases when ads begin toplay and increases during a continuous music play on a radio station.There are exceptions, such as wherein listenership falls for a radiostation during play of an unpopular song, for example. Further,listenership even during advertising may not fall if the advertising ispopular, such as wherein the advertisement is amusing or of significantinterest to listeners.

Information about listeners 773 can be used as feedback 778 to the hub750, such as real time monitoring of numbers of listeners 773 to one ormore stations. For example, as is known to those skilled in the art,vehicles can be monitored at a heavy intersection to determine thestation to which they are tuned. The hub 750 may modify the radiostation play list 776 in real time according to certain predeterminedcriteria. For example, if listenership of the particular radio stationbegins to fall, the hub 750 may preempt certain advertising that was toplay with popular music. Consequently, listenership for that radiostation will rise. When listenership reaches a particular level, premiumadvertising rates may become available, and the hub 750 may at thatstage preempt the music play with premium advertising in order tomaximize advertising revenues and maximize the number of listeners whohear a given advertisement. Thus, when demand for advertising spots andadvertising rates are high, the creation of more advertising spotsthusly increases advertising revenues. Further, an advertiser willing topay only lower rates will be able to place ads during times when theadvertising can best be afforded by that advertiser.

As an example, an advertiser may desire to have an advertisement runonly when listenership is above 100,000, regardless of the time of day.Using these predetermined criteria, the hub 750 may modify the radiostation play list 776 in real time to intelligently preempt music play,for example, once the 100,000 listener threshold set by the advertiserhas been met or exceeded. Once the advertisement has run, the hub 750may return to music play or continue with running advertisements.Various criteria for the play of advertisements can be set, and exampleswill be described below in the context of the user interface forscheduling a media buy.

It will be apparent in light of the description hereinabove that varioussources may be mined in order to access any desirable variation in theplay list 776. For example, popular music downloads, as assessed bycertain internet sites, may give excellent guidance on what would be themost popular radio music plays at a given time. Playing not simply musicbut the most popular music at a given time will have the greatest returnin increasing listenership to the radio station at that given time.Further, such an embodiment of intelligent preemption and insertion canmake available to the hub 750 even more refined decisions. For example,greater advertising rates can be charged for advertising that playsimmediately adjacent to the most popular songs available for play by theradio station. The hub may also limit certain content to control theprice of advertising by, for example, playing only a limited amount ofthe most popular music in a given time period. By way of furtherexample, advertising rates may be set according to actual listenershipeither measured in real time or estimated based on broadcast content.

Listeners 773 to a radio station may respond to certain advertising byundertaking the activity advised by the advertisement, such as bystopping for food at a food establishment, shopping at a particularretail establishment, using an advertised coupon, visiting an advertisedwebsite for more information, calling a particular customer servicenumber, and the like. The activity advised or encouraged by theadvertisement, either directly or indirectly, is known as the targetedresponse 777. Measures of this targeted response 777 assist theadvertiser in assessing the efficacy of the advertisement. The targetedresponse 777 may vary significantly based on the circumstances of theadvertisement placement. Advertisers desire to play advertisements whenit is perceived or known that the greatest targeted response 777 will beachieved. Techniques in accordance with the present invention forobserving the targeted response 777 are described herein below. Measuresof the targeted response 777 may be collected and provided to the hub750 to inform whether a given campaign creative should be played again,or alternatively, which campaign creative among two or more alternativesshould be played. As such, subsequent media plays 772 may be varied inaccordance with the success or failure of proceeding radio plays.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a variety oftechniques can be used for observing the targeted response 777. Thesetechniques include but are not limited to tracking phone calls, couponusage, SMS coupons, website hits, and sales. In various embodiments,these techniques can be used separately or in combination with eachother to observe the targeted response 777, and ultimately the efficacyof a campaign.

In one embodiment, a campaign creative provides a particular phonenumber to call to obtain more information about an advertised product orservice. In one implementation, the number of phone calls is trackeddirectly by the call center. In another embodiment, phone calls to aphone number are routed through a tracking module that registersincoming calls, for example by tracking caller ID information todetermine the location of the caller, to one or more numbers beforerouting the calls to a call center. In one embodiment, calls to onenumber routed through a tracking module can be correlated to theadvertisement played most recently in the caller's geographic market.Over time, the effectiveness of advertisements played in promptinglisteners to call can be measured for various creatives, at varioustimes, in various markets. In another embodiment, more than one phonenumber is used to measure the number of calls in response to onecreative compared to the number of calls in response to another creativethat advertises a different phone number. Alternatively or additionally,the number of calls in response to the play of one creative on onestation can be compared to the number of calls in response to the playof that creative on a different station merely by advertising differentphone numbers for each.

In another embodiment, targeted response 777 can be tracked by trackingcoupon usage. Different coupon codes can be advertised in each creativeplayed or each station can play an advertisement having a differentcoupon code. Thus, as customers identify their coupons upon the purchaseof goods or services, the seller is able to track by which advertisementthe customer was influenced. In one embodiment, the coupon code can besent back to listeners who respond to an advertisement in SMS format,and the coupon code can be unique on a customer by customer basis and/orcan be correlated to a particular play of an advertisement. Thus, whenthe coupon code is used at a point of sale, whether it be at a website,through a call center, or at a store, the sale can be matched to theinquiry and/or ultimately to the played advertisement.

In yet another embodiment, the number of website hits that a particularsite receives can be tracked and correlated to media plays. In oneembodiment, advertisers can use different web addresses to measure therelative effectiveness of two or more advertisements. Alternatively, theIP addresses of computer visitors can be used to determine thegeographic location of those that access an advertised website.

In one embodiment, advertisers can track sales figures for advertisedgoods, services, businesses, or the like. They can then correlate salesnumbers with campaign creatives played, for example, on a temporal basisor on a geographic market basis. For example, data from cash registerreceipts from stores that sell an advertised product in one geographicalarea can be compared to data from cash register receipts from storesthat sell an advertised product in another geographical area.Alternatively, data from cash register receipts from stores that sell anadvertised product in the days following the play of one campaigncreative can be compared to data from cash register receipts from storesthat sell an advertised product in the days following the play of adifferent campaign creative. However the targeted response 777 ismeasured, the data collected can be used as a feedback to the hub 750 toinform which creative within a campaign are most effective.

In various embodiments of the present invention, intelligent insertionmay be performed in any media play context, including any audio sourceinto a media feed. For example, insertion may be made in a radio stationor streaming Internet radio context, a cellular telephone context, in aVoice over IP (VoIP) context, an SMS context, a WiMax context, adownloadable audio file context such as for iPods or other MP3 players,videogame systems, or the like. The media play insertion may include asong, a message, a news, traffic, sports, or weather update, one or morecoupons, or an instant message, for example.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of the flow of information within thecommunication system of FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 8 shows information flow300, which includes two principle regions, Radio Automation Software(“RAS”) 230 and workflow 310. RAS 230 may include schedule file 320 andaudio file 330. Workflow 310 may include audio advertisement files 340,publisher 350, and master controller 360. The flow of information willbe described with reference to the numerals labeling the arrowsrepresenting the flow of information.

RAS 230 may include a flow of information for a new schedule file 1. Newschedule file may originate with schedule file 320 and be transmitted toa first chain agent 370. This transmission may occur by an externalsoftware that publishes a new schedule file to the RAS 230 file system.A first chain agent 370, via a directory watcher process, detects newschedule file 320, and reads it off of disk. This new schedule file 320may originate or be taken from several systems within the radio stationand or from a location outside the studio itself (in the case of remotenetwork programming). Eventually, schedule file 320 may be created whileremaining unpublished to RAS 230. The filling methods may be local, andthe rules for filling the inventory may not be dynamic nor take intoconsideration a revenue maximization function. For example, 3rd partygroups today will “buy” unsold inventory in advance and give the station1-N ads, that the station can “fill” unsold inventory. The station inthis case is selling unsolds in advance without a guaranteed schedule.

First chain agent 370 residing in RAS 230 may pass information to aworkflow 310. This retrieval of a new schedule file 320 may be seen inFIG. 8 as link 4. This information may be passed to a parse and storestep located within workflow 310. As the RAS chain agent 370 readsschedule file 320, the file may be transmitted to workflow 310. The dDpreemptable ad avails (dD Avails) may be parsed from schedule file 320and stored for further processing. The original schedule file 320 may bestored for billing, accounting, and auditing purposes. This parsing andstoring, shown and described to occur within workflow 310, may beachieved at studio 140.

After parsing and storing the schedule file, the information istransmitted to the Inventory Management System (“IMS”) where thecampaign is assigned to schedule file 320. This transmission is shown bylabel 5 and may occur within workflow 310. This represents the deliveryof the dD Avails to IMS. Rather than collecting the unsold inventoryreport in a central location, the central location, which tracks adeffectiveness, may publish results to each station and the local stationsoftware may use this information to make “intelligent” insertion overunsold inventory. The available ads may need to be published ordelivered to station 140 and station 140 may need to receive performancedata on those campaigns, so that the local engine may make decisions.

Similarly, after parsing and storing the schedule file, a validatorchecks for possible scheduling errors. The transmission of informationto the validator is shown by label 6. The validator may input thisinformation and analyze schedule file 320 for errors in tag structure,frequency of tags, station contractual obligations, such as minimumnumber of spots per period, and other errors known to those possessingan ordinary skill in the pertinent arts. This validation, while shown tooccur within workflow 310, may occur local to hub 150. The validator mayoutput information to IMS on whether the schedule file 320 is validated.This validity feedback is shown by label 23. Once IMS receives anappropriate response from the validator, IMS may process the new dDAvails, by assigning dD advertisements and specific creative to specificdD Avails. This IMS, while shown to occur within workflow 310, may occurlocal to hub 150.

After the IMS assigns campaigns to the schedule file, the processing maybe complete, and the information in the schedule transmitted to apublisher as shown by label 25. The result of the processing of dDAvails is a dB Schedule, which is specific to each station. Thiscreation, while shown to occur within flow 310, may occur local to hub150.

After publishing the schedule, information may be transmitted to themaster controller 360 as shown by label 7. The master controller 360 mayoperate as the brains behind “trafficking” the unsold spots slated forpreemption within the dB schedule file. The master controller 360receives the song feed, including ads, as to what is being playedcurrently on a station. The master controller 360 uses this feed todetermine where in the current schedule file a station is. The mastercontroller 360 manages the replacement of the ads, and the swapping backof the original ad, once the spot has run. The master controller 360,while shown to occur within workflow 310, may occur local to hub 150.

A feedback system may be created for creating new schedules as shown bylabels 8, 9, and 2. This transmission path may transfer information fromthe master controller 360 to the publisher 350, label 8, from thepublisher 350 to the second chain agent 380, label 9, and from thesecond chain agent 380 to the first chain agent 370, label 2. Thus,there is a schedule for a given station, master controller 360instruction to pre-empt a spot, and master controller 360 instructionsto restore the preempted spot after it has played. The master controller360 interrogates the dB Schedule file for a given station, identifyingthe names of all of the creatives that are scheduled to run, andpublishes these creative to the station via the 8-9-2 pathway. The chainagent examines a cache of previously stored ads to determine that it hasstored all creatives. The master controller, if it determines that aspot is ready to be pre-empted, may send a notification via the 8-9-2pathway, to instruct the chain agent to swap creative one for creativetwo. The chain agent 370 may confirm receipt of this message via the2-30 pathway.

The chain agent may manage the physical preemption process. Instructionsto preempt an ad may be delivered via path 18 to audio files 330. Thechain agent may preserve the original audio file X by either renaming itor moving it to a different directory on the file system. The originalfile, the dD spot and the slated pre-emption may be copied into adirectory of the same file name. The header information within the file,used to populate the RAS screen, may be different and reflects theactual ad that will run even though the file name is the same. Theheader information may identify what is written to the RAS log files forbilling purposes and the station may be aware that the preemptionoccurred. Once this preemption has been completed or failed due to someerror, status may be published via pathway (2-30). The chain agent,which may be responsible for sending the song feed, known as the log, ofwhat is actually playing on the station, such as by pathway labeled 22,may monitor the feed to see the pre-empted spot run. Once it has run,the chain agent may swap the original ad back and notifies the mastercontroller.

The feedback pathway labeled 2, 31 may enable the chain agent 370 todetermine if the audio file is available. The chain agent may requestthe publisher, via pathway 31, to send it a specific creative. Thepublisher responds by sending the file along with a checksum to confirmthe file was not corrupted in transmission via pathway 9, 2.

The chain agent 370 may also prompt the song feed across pathway 22. Thechain agent, depending on the RAS configuration, may either watch thelog file on the RAS to determine what is being played over the air, ormay receive a data feed from the RAS directly containing play history.The chain agent may scrub the feed and publish it to workflow 310. Thesong feed may be exported directly over the WAN to workflow 310 and alocal agent may not be required.

In the event that the validator determines there to be an error,information may be transmitted across pathway 16 in order fornotification of an error to occur. If errors are found in the schedulefile, such as a result of a contractual breach or a technical issue, aset of rules may be set up dependent upon the type or error and thestation the error occurred on, to notify both systems and people thatare tasked to resolve the errors.

The event ad may be played. As shown in pathways 19, 20, 21 theinformation derived hereinabove may be transmitted to the gateway. Theinformation may be transmitted to a radio tower across pathway 19. Radiotower broadcasts to an audience across channel 20. As the audienceresponds to the pre-empted ad, by calling a telephone number, workflow310 traps the caller ID or is notified from the call center, insubstantially real time, or on a daily basis, for example.

New calls may be logged, and the information may be provided to IMSacross paths 13, 12. As calls are logged, the calls may be trackedagainst the dB schedule file. Revenues and performance metrics may betracked given audience size, Arbitron data, and other factors. Thisinformation may be used by IMS to optimize ad targeting.

Campaign performance, in addition to being transmitted to IMS, may betransmitted across pathway 14 to a forecaster. Forecaster may compareactual performance with predicted performance and revenues. The IMSmethods may be evaluated based upon the accuracy of the predications.Over time, the forecaster may project future revenues based on inventoryflow and ad campaigns scheduled in the system. The forecaster mayprovide automated notification to station traffic managers that thepresent invention may result in income.

A verification may occur. The pathway labeled 40, 42 may demonstrate theavailability of verification. The master control, in addition, mayinstruct the local chain agent at the station to pre-empt a spot and,responsive to the notification, may notify a digital radio that canreceive the broadcast of the station to record the ad scheduled by themaster controller, such as by sending a schedule or a real timenotification to start/stop recording. The audio may be streamed over theWAN and recorded within the workflow 310 environment. Verification mayoccur across transmission path 41 demonstrating an ad spot recorded offthe air. Once the file is recorded, it may be transmitted to workflow310 to verify. The verify process may compare the audio file recorded tothe audio file that was shipped to the station. If there is a match,then the ad spot may be logged as verified. If no match exists, the filemay be routed to a human capable of listening to the original and therecorded file to determine if the spot matches. If no match stillexists, further action may be taken. Subscriber 130 may opt to listen tothe recorded spots and the original in one of several verificationreports. This audio may be streamed over the WAN and recorded within theworkflow 310 environment.

FIGS. 9A-N illustrates a user interface whereby advertisers may purchaseadvertising spots and develop an advertising campaign in accordance withdesired and entered criteria. In general, the following discloses a userinterface for purchasing and developing an advertising campaign. SeveralFigures are presented as screen shots depicting examples of the userinterface as it might appear on a display screen or other output device.The particular screen layouts, appearance, and terminology as depictedand described herein, are intended to be illustrative and exemplary, andin no way limit the scope of the invention as claimed.

FIG. 9A illustrates a user interface for selecting a buy type for anadvertising campaign. In one embodiment, the user accesses the userinterface through an online account with the media broker, referred toherein as “dMarc”. The account may require the user to login using ausername and password or alternatively by using any other method ofauthentication known to those of skill in the art.

This example user interface 900 includes tabs 901-904 to allow the usereasy access to the main portions of the user interface 900: campaignmanagement 901, creatives 902, account management 903, and reports 904.In one embodiment, the user begins with the campaign management tab 901selected. Within the campaign management tab 901, the user can developthe advertising campaign. The user can select a direct buy by selectingradio button 910. A direct buy allows the user to target advertisementsby market and format, among other criteria. Alternatively, the user canselect a network buy by selecting radio button 911. A network buy allowsthe user to place a buy using pre-defined networks. These networks mayhave been previously defined by the user or defined by the media broker.If a user selects radio button 911 for a network buy, the user may alsoselect a network from the options listed in the network options window912. In this embodiment, the name of the network, a description of thenetwork, and the number of stations in the network are displayed. Inalternative embodiments, more or less information may be listed for eachoption. In one embodiment, the information listed for each option in thenetwork options window 912 is configurable by the user via userpreferences specified by the user for the user's account. After the userhas selected the buy type, the user selects the save & continue button914.

FIG. 9B illustrates a user interface for selecting a campaign type. Thisexample user interface includes a list of campaign types 920. The userselects the radio button for CPM/CPP 921 to pay based on a listeningaudience size. CPM stands for cost per thousand. The user selects theradio button for CPI 922 to pay based on listeners' response to theadvertisement. The user selects the radio button for CPI with min. CPM923 to pay based on the greater of a minimum CPM or CPI based onlistener response. The user interface also includes a list of inventorytypes 930. The user selects guaranteed radio button 931 to reserve spotsin each market and format that are targeted by the advertiser. The userselects the preemptable radio button 932 to reserve spots in each marketand format that are targeted by the advertiser, but with greateruncertainty as to whether the user's spot will play as scheduled thatwith the guaranteed option. The user selects the open radio button 933to run advertisements whenever possible depending on inventory availableand budget caps. In one embodiment, default selections are made for theuser on this screen, and the user can change the defaults if desired.Once the user has selected one from the list of campaign types 920 andone from the list of inventory types 930, the user selects the save &continue button 914.

FIG. 9C illustrates a user interface for selecting the creative length.This example user interface includes radio buttons corresponding to thelength of the spot the user desires to air. In the example given in FIG.9C, a radio button 941 is available for specifying a 30 second spot anda radio button 942 is available for specifying a 60 second spot. Inother implementations, any other lengths of creative can be specified,for example shorter than 30 seconds or longer than one minute. In someembodiments, the user interface provides a drop down list or a textentry window to specify the length of the creative. Once the user hasselected the length of the creative, the user selects the save &continue button 914.

FIG. 9D illustrates a user interface for selecting the run dates of thecampaign. The user can select a start date from the start date calendar943 and the end date from the end date calendar 944. The user can viewdates of the previous month by selecting the left arrow 945, 947 or viewdates of the next month by selecting the right arrow 946,948. The startand end dates the user selects can be highlighted, marked in acontrasting color, underlined, bolded, or identified in any otherfashion. In this example, the user is selecting the run dates of theentire campaign rather than selecting the run dates of individualflights that make up the campaign. The user interface for selectingdates for flights is described below with reference to FIG. 9G. Once theuser has selected the start and end dates of the campaign, the userselects the save & continue button 914.

FIG. 9E illustrates a user interface for selecting target markets forthe play of the creative. This example user interface includes a targetmarket options window 950. Within the target market options window 950,the user can select checkboxes corresponding to the target markets oftheir choice. In the example user interface shown in FIG. 9E, the targetmarket options window 950 includes a select all checkbox 951 forselecting all market options. A checkbox is also available to select alltarget markets within a state by selecting the checkbox next to thestate abbreviation, for example checkbox 952 for Alabama. Alternativelyor additionally, a user can select checkboxes such as checkboxes 953 and954 corresponding to individual markets within the state, in thisexample Birmingham and Huntsville within the state of Alabama. Invarious implementations, additional information is listed about eachmarket option. For example, the market rank, the number of stations inthe market, and the average AQH, a measure of the listenership of thestation, can also be included. In other implementations, more or lessinformation may be listed to help the user determine which markets toselect for a campaign. The user can use the checkboxes to select ordeselect the target markets of interest, and then select the save &continue button 914.

FIG. 9F illustrates a user interface for selecting station format forthe play of the creative. This example user interface includes a stationformat options window 960. Within the station format options window 960,the user can select checkboxes corresponding to the station formats ofthe choice. For each station format option, there is listed the numberof stations that have that station format. In one embodiment, thisnumber is calculated only for the markets that the user selected throughthe user interface shown in FIG. 9E. In the example user interface shownin FIG. 9F, the station format options window 960 includes a select allcheckbox 961 for selecting all station formats. A checkbox is alsoavailable to select, for example 80s Hits stations 962 or All Sportsstations 963. The user can use the checkboxes to select or deselect thestation formats of interest. In other embodiments, a user can makeselections from a drop down menu and/or can filter the selections basedon available inventory, or various other ways of making a selectionknown to those of skill in the art. After the user selects the stationformats for the play of the creative, the user selects the save &continue button 914.

FIG. 9G illustrates a user interface for specifying run times andbudgets. This example user interface includes a list of network details970. In one embodiment, the network name and network description andtarget population information is automatically populated from theinformation selected previously by the user. In one embodiment, the usercan also select or adjust the start date 976 by selecting the calendarand selecting the day on which the campaign flight should begin.Similarly, the user can also select or adjust the end date 977 for thecampaign flight. The user can then select the add flight button 978. Inone embodiment, the user is presented with further customizable optionsfor the campaign flight, which will be described with reference to FIG.9H.

FIG. 9H illustrates a user interface for specifying run times andbudgets, specifically campaign flights, days, dayparts, caps, and goals.The user interface includes a list of flights in the campaign 980. Theuser can specify the days of the week to run the creative using thecheckboxes 981 of the user interface. The user can specify the daypartpercentages by entering numbers into the daypart percentage fields 982,including the weekend percentage. The daypart percentages 982 and theweekend percentage 983 specify how the user desires to weight the playof the advertisement in terms of how the spots for a week are split upinto time slots. For example, the user can specify that the creativeonly be played during morning drive time (6 am-10 am) by weighting theappropriate daypart percentage field at 100, which corresponds to 100%of the plays of the creative during the flight. Alternatively, the usercan specify any other combination of times. In other embodiment, thedayparts are more finely or coarsely defined. In the example userinterface given in FIG. 9G, the entire day of Saturday and the entireday of Sunday is each treated as a daypart for percentage allocationpurposes. Further, in this embodiment, the user can select the weekenddaypart 984 using the dropdown menu that specifies time window on theweekend during which the creative can run. In this example, 24 hrs hasbeen selected, which indicates that the creative can run at any time ofthe day or night of the weekend.

The user interface of FIG. 9H also includes a text field to specify thedollar cap amount 986 for each flight. The user can enter a cost perthousand impressions cap amount into the text field for CPM 987.Alternatively, if the user has selected a campaign type of CPI 922, theuser can enter a cost per inquiry amount into a text field in place ofthe CPM text field 987 shown in FIG. 9H. Further alternatively, if theuser has selected a campaign type of CPI with min. CPM 923, the user canenter both a cost per inquiry amount and a CPM into respective textfields. The user interface provides a drop down menu to select thedelivery target type 988. The delivery target types include grossimpressions, GRP, TRP, and target impressions. The user specifies, viavalue 989, the value of the delivery target that the user desires. Theeven market distribution drop down menu 990 allows the user to specifywhether the user wants the delivery target to be met evenly acrossmarkets regardless of size (i.e., by impressions), or proportionallyacross the markets according to listening population (i.e., bypercentages). For example, suppose a user enters a target of 10,000impressions and has selected two geographic markets, Des Moines, Iowa,and New York City, N.Y. over which to make the impressions. Selectingeven market distribution 990 by impressions will instruct the system toallocate spots with the goal of achieving 5,000 impressions in DesMoines, Iowa, and 5,000 impressions in New York City, N.Y., despite thesize of the relative markets. However, the target of 10,000 impressionscould instead by expressed as a desire to reach a certain percentage ofthe listeners in Des Moines and a similar percentage of listeners in NewYork City, thus resulting in the number of impressions in Des Moinesbeing targeted at a proportionally lower number than New York City toadjust for the size difference between the markets. The overflowpercentages fields 991 and 992 allow the user to specify by how much theconstraints on even market distribution and the daypart percentages canbe relaxed. In one embodiment, if zeros are entered into fields 991 and992, then the rules are strictly followed. Given the example above, ifonly 3,000 impressions worth of inventory are available in Des Moinesthat meet the user's other criteria, then the target for impressions inNew York City will also be 3,000. However, if the market overflowpercentage is increased from zero to 20%, then up to 20% of the totaltarget impressions, if not available in Des Moines, can be compensatedfor by impressions in New York City. The daypart overflow percentage 992works similarly to relax the criteria specified in the daypartpercentages 982-984.

By selecting the forecast button 993 shown in FIG. 9H, the user canaccess a forecast of the spots that are forecasted to run for eachflight in a campaign. FIG. 9I illustrates a user interface showing theforecast 994 of the spots to run for two flights in a campaign. Variousdata can be included in the forecast, such as the requested dollar cap,the actual cost, the forecasted number of stations to run the spots, thetotal spots, the cost per spot, the targeted impressions, the grossimpressions, the effective CPM, the target population, the TRPs, thecost per TRP, the gross population, the GRPs, the cost per GRPs, andother financial and statistical data relevant to the forecasted plays ofcreative in the campaign. The user can select the save & continue button914 to exit the forecast view.

FIG. 9J illustrates a user interface for specifying the audio creativeto run. This example user interface includes a list of availablecreative 995. In one embodiment, after the user uploads a new creativeto the system, it will appear in the list of creative 995. The user canselect one or more creative using the checkboxes in the list 995, andthen select the save and continue button 914.

FIG. 9K illustrates a user interface for specifying how the audiocreative selected via the user interface of FIG. 9J should be used inrotation. The user can select radio button 996 to specify that a simplerotation should be used, for example an alternation between twoadvertisements. The user can select radio button 997 to specify that aweighted rotation should be used to rotate the selected spots usinguser-configurable percentages. The user can subsequently select thepercentages for the weighted rotation. For example, the user may specifythat creative A be played 75% of the time, and creative B be played 25%of the time. Alternatively, the user may specify that any number ofcreative be played at any desired weighted rotation. The user can selectthe save & continue button 914 to save the user's preferences for thecreative rotation.

FIG. 9L illustrates a user interface for specifying external criteriafor the play of a campaign creative, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention. Factors other than the time, day, and station mayinfluence if and when a user wants to have a creative played. Forexample, an advertiser may determine that certain factors influence themood or behavior of those who are likely to hear an ad, and maycorrespondingly influence the success of the ad in triggering thetargeted response. For example, an advertiser may determine, fromexperience or market research for example, that people are more inclinedto buy ice cream on hot days than cold days. Therefore, an ice creamadvertiser may want to schedule advertisements for ice cream on hot daysto increase the targeted response of ice cream purchases from his store.As another example, an advertiser may determine that consumers are morereceptive to advertisements for vacations on days where commuteconditions are the worst. Therefore, this advertiser may desire toschedule advertising time accordingly. As a further example, it may bedetermined that items branded with the name of the local sports teamsell better after a recent victory by the team. As these examplesillustrate, there are a number of factors, criteria, or conditionsbeyond the time of day and station that may directly or indirectlyinfluence how receptive listeners are to the creative and how likelythey are to make the targeted response. These factors, criteria orconditions, other than time, day, and station, are collectively referredto herein as external criteria. The present invention allows advertisersto specify these external criteria and the system schedules the spotsaccording to these rules. The following screen shots illustrate examplesof external criteria, but one of skill in the art will recognize thatother criteria are also possible.

In the example of FIG. 9L, a list of weather conditions 9010, a list ofcurrent events 9012, and a list of targeted responses 9013 are displayedto the user. Each weather condition 9010, current event 9012, andtargeted response 9013 has a corresponding checkbox that the user canselect to specify that the corresponding criterion is of interest. Inother implementations, other current events, other weather conditions,other targeted responses, or any other category of external criteria canbe listed, such as a wait time of a call center, a terror-alert color,news stories, broadcast topics/radio guests, financial indicators,interest rates, gas prices, and store visits, for example. In the waittime of a call center example, a user can specify that if a wait timeuntil a customer's call is answered at a call center exceeds, forexample, 10 minutes, an alternative advertisement should play ratherthan playing an advertisement that encourages additional customers tocall. In this way, call center wait time can be managed to ensureadequate responsiveness. In other implementations, such as in theon-demand context, individual characteristics of a person requesting themedia play can be used to determine which creative to play. In thoseimplementations, characteristics can be listed in addition to or insteadof other criteria. The user can select one or more criteria, and thenselect the save & continue button 914.

FIG. 9M illustrates a user interface for specifying a rule 9014 for theexample external criterion of pollen count. In this example, thisportion of the UI determines which ad is played in a particular slot.The slot is determined, for example, according to either a reservedmethod (also called guaranteed) or the auction method (also calledopen). This example allows the user to specify criteria to decide whichad will be played in a particular slot. FIG. 9M shows selection ofexternal criteria on a campaign-wide basis. In other implementations,the selection of the external criteria can be performed separately bygeographical location, by demographic population, or by any othersubgroup. Using the interface of FIG. 9M, the user can specify acriterion and identify the action the user wants taken when thecriterion is met. In this example, the details of the rule the userwants followed is with respect to pollen count. The user can select fromdrop down menu 9016 whether the rule is defined in terms of a highpollen count or a low pollen count. The user identifies via drop downmenu 9018 the creative that the user wants played from the creativesthat the user has uploaded to the system. Via text entry field 9020, theuser specifies the percentage that the creative identified in menu 9018should be played in accordance with various values of pollen count. Theuser can also identify via drop down menu 9022 a second creative fromthe creatives that the user has uploaded to the system to play for thepercentage specified in text entry field 9024.

For example, a company that makes allergy medicine and a pain killer maydesire to establish a rule with respect to how often advertisements foreach of their products are played. On an average day, the company mayprefer to play an advertisement for its allergy medicine in a simplerotation with an advertisement for its pain killer. However, the companycan specify a criterion and identify an action to take when thecriterion is met. For example, on high pollen count days the company maywant a different allocation between allergy medicine advertisements andpain killer advertisements. High pollen count days may trigger manypeople to consider purchasing allergy medicine, and the company may wishincrease the frequency that the allergy medicine spot plays in order toinduce more sales of the company's brand over the company's competitors.Therefore, the company can use the interface of FIG. 9M to establish arule with respect to pollen count. The company may specify that ifpollen count is high, then creative A (the allergy medicineadvertisement) should be played 90% of the time and creative B (the painkiller advertisement) be played 10% of the time. Alternatively, thecompany may specify that if pollen count is high, then creative A shouldbe played 50% of the time and creative C, another allergy medicineadvertisement, be played 50% of the time. In this example, if when thecriterion is met, the company only wants one advertisement to be played,100% can be entered into the text entry field 9020.

In one embodiment, there can be a plurality of rules for conditionalbidding. For example, rules can be developed on a per market basis, on aper format basis, or on a per station basis.

FIG. 9N illustrates a user interface for specifying a rule 9034 for theexample external criterion of temperature. In this example, this portionof the UI determines which slot an ad is ultimately played in. The slotis determined, for example, according to an auction method (also calledopen). In this example, the user can specify how valuable a spot is thatmeets the criteria the user establishes, and this may affect the pricethat a campaign ultimately bids for a slot. The user can adjust how muchthe user is willing to bid for a spot that meets the criteria. The usercan enter via drop down menu 9036 whether the rule is with respect tothe temperature being greater than or equal to a threshold or below athreshold. The user can enter the threshold temperature in text entryfield 9038. The user can then specify in text entry fields 9042 and 9044what the user's respective bids are for when the criteria are met andwhen they are not.

For example, a company that sells tropical vacations may desire toestablish a rule with respect to how much it is willing to pay to playadvertisements in certain weather conditions. Suppose that the companyhas discovered that although people buy tropical vacations year round,people are particularly inclined to buy tropical vacations when theirlocal temperature is below freezing. Thus, advertising time on days whenthe temperature is below freezing is more valuable to the company thanadvertising time on warmer days. In this case, the company can use theinterface of FIG. 9N to establish a rule in advance, for example days,weeks, or months in advance, of scheduling any advertising time. Thecompany may specify that if the temperature is less than 32 degrees, thecompany bids $10 CPM, and otherwise bids $7 CPM. Because the companybids higher on the cold days, it is more likely to be allocated morespots on cold days than on warm days.

FIG. 9O illustrates a user interface for specifying a rule 9050 for theexample external criterion of listener phone calls in response to playsof advertisements. In this example, the user can specify the percentagesthat advertisements should play based on the success of the respectiveadvertisements in achieving the targeted response of phone calls. Theuser can specify the period over which the phone call data should becompared from drop down menu 9052. For example, the user may desire themost recent data from only the last day, or for a longer or shorterperiod. Alternatively, any relevant period, for example, the runs ofindividual flights within a campaign can be listed by date. The user canspecify a creative from the drop down menu 9054 to compare via anoperator from drop down menu 9056 to a creative from the drop down menu9058. The selection from menu 9052 identifies the period of interest,and the selections from menus 9054, 9056, and 9058 identify therelationship between the response to those advertisements that definesthe criteria for the following action of adjusting the play percentage.The user can specify via drop down menu 9060 a creative to increase theplay percentage of by an amount specified by the user in field 9062. Forexample, a user may establish a rule 9050 that if phone calls from lastweek in response to creative A are less than the phone calls fromcreative B, then the play percentage of creative A should be increased10%.

The example rules of FIGS. 9M, 9N, and 9O are merely illustrations oftypes of rules that can be established by users. Rules for any externalcriteria can be developed in a variety of formats. Moreover, multiplerules can be developed to govern the play of one campaign. Alternativelyor additionally, rules for any external criteria, including listenerresponse, can be developed on a per market basis, on a per format basis,or on a per station basis. For example, if the play of a first creativeis generating a better response on one station than the play of a secondcreative, the user can elect to have the system automatically adjust therespective play percentages to increase or maximize the overall returnthe advertiser's investment.

FIG. 10 illustrates a user interface for a campaign summary 999. Thecampaign summary can include any data of interest in managing acampaign. In this example, the campaign summary includes a list offlights, the relevant start and end dates of the flight, the ad cap, theexpenditure to date, the audience to date, the status of the flight, andother campaign information. In one embodiment, the user can select thehistory link for each flight in the campaign summary 999 to view a moredetailed analysis of the given flight. In other implementations, theuser can specify the columns of information to display in the campaignsummary 999 through user preferences.

FIG. 11 illustrates a search interface 1000 that may be associated withpre-play knowledge and/or post-play knowledge of a media play. Forexample, a media play comprising audio media may, based on theunderstanding of the hub, be subject to pre-play knowledge that theaudio play is about to occur. Further, in an embodiment, the audio playmay be speech to text converted prior to the audio play, and as such theaudio may be available via a text search based on the pre-playknowledge. Similarly, an audio media play may occur, and post-playknowledge may exist that the audio play occurred. The audio may bespeech to text converted, and as such may be available via a text searchsubstantially immediately following the occurrence of the audio mediaplay. Likewise, key descriptors related to but not present in the audiomay be electronically associated with a post-play recording of the audioitself, a pre-play recording of the audio itself, or the searchable textconversion of the audio play as discussed hereinabove. Thus, theentirety of this information may be stored in a database, such arelational database, wherein keywords, key terms, text, circumstances,and pre-play and post-play knowledge of a media play are associated withthe media play.

In the example interface shown in FIG. 11, the search interface 1000allows the user to enter text into the key descriptors window 1090 orenter text into the terms window 1091. The user can then select thesearch button 1092 to execute a search of database storing the dataabout the scheduled media plays. To cancel the search for keydescriptors or terms, the user can select the cancel button 1093.

For example, if the Jim and Dean Radio Show interviews the President at9:00 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, knowledge of the occurrence of a mediaplay comprising the audio of a radio interview between Jim and Dean andthe President may allow for an association of key terms, such as “Jimand Dean Show”, the “President”, “Tuesday”, and the like, with the audiofile of the interview, or with the searchable text generated inaccordance with the audio file of the interview. As such, the interfaceof FIG. 11 allows for the location of the audio file based on a searchfor terms used during the interview, and/or based on a search for thekey terms associated with the interview. It will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art that, although the present exemplary embodiment asdiscussed with respect to audio media, video media and computer mediamay be similarly made available for searching.

With regard to the interfaces of FIGS. 9-11, the use of searchingthrough the interface of FIG. 11 may be tracked in order to informrelevant characteristics of the advertising. For example, a high volumeof searches at the interface of FIG. 11 for the terms “Jim and DeanShow” and “President” is indicative of demand for advertising spotsduring the broadcast. In one embodiment, the price charged for thepurchase of such advertising can be positively correlated to the numberof times certain keywords are entered. Consequently, a higher price canbe charged for the most popular spots.

In another embodiment, via the interface of FIG. 9, advertisers canenter preferences to universally purchase advertising slots adjacent tothe audio media plays that are hits for certain search terms. Forexample, the Walt Disney Company might desire that, through theinterface of FIG. 9, an advertisement for the Walt Disney Company bescheduled to run adjacent to any broadcast that involves the term“Disney”. Thus, if the “Jim and Dean Show” is scheduled to review aDisney Movie on Wednesday morning, in this example, the Walt DisneyCompany wants to purchase an advertisement slot, for example, before,during, or after the review.

In one implementation, keywords and descriptions can be included asheaders to computerized files associated with the media play. As such,media play can be tokenized, or broken, into numerous parts, and headersfor each division can be devised as to a proper description of the mediaplay in that particular portion of the overall media play. Thereby, amedia play could be searchable, and consequently associated advertisingmedia plays could be sale-able, in accordance with the media play,searchable text associated with the media play, divisions of the mediaplay, searchable text associated with divisions of the media play,headers associated with the media play, or headers of sectionsassociated with the divisions of the media play.

Further, the searchability and sale-ability of media plays and portionsthereof may be advantageously optimized in accordance with theassociation of the hub with the media plays. This is due to the factthat the hub allows for pre-play and post-play knowledge of each mediaplay, including scheduling information, pre-emption information, linkinginformation, or insertion information. The searchability andsale-ability of particular media plays may further be associated withthe system in an inverse relationship. For example, if a user entered aparticular media play for review on line, certain relevant keywords orassociations made with that media play in a searchable engine, such asthat of FIG. 11, may be associated with that user's accessing of themedia play, and as such advertising media plays may be presented to thatuser in accordance with search terms deemed most likely associated withthat user based on the accessing of that particular media play.

The use of the present invention in audio media play embodiments can beoptimized through the use of an optimized speech to text converter. Itwill be apparent to those skilled in the art that, in the event anoptimized speech to text converter is not available, it may be desirableto manually review speech to text conversions prior to making suchconversions available through the interface of FIG. 11.

As discussed above, it is preferable that the media play interfaces ofFIGS. 9-11 be associated with the hub discussed hereinthroughout. In anembodiment, media play point output, such as a radio station output,may, upon occurrence of a particular media play or for all media play,be output through a speech to text conversion, voice recognitionsoftware system. The hub, through its post play monitoring function, maybe associated with, or may include, the voice recognition software andmay further include, or be associated with, a data recorder to recordthe associated text data. Further, that recorder or a second recordermay record the actual audio that has been played, and may capture thataudio in high fidelity to allow for premium sound upon play back.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of thediscussion of the hub hereinabove, that in particular embodiments, suchas radio station embodiments, preplaying knowledge allows that onlycertain aspects of media play need be recorded. For example, music filesthat are digitally available and are output through the radio station inaccordance with the play list need not be recorded upon occurrence ofthe play, as such recording is inherently already available digitally.Consequently, only the fact that that particular song was played and onwhat station and in what region and at what time, need be made availablethrough the search engine, because the song could be simplisticallyaccessed without making an additional recording upon the radio stationplay. Consequently, in certain exemplary embodiments only the audio feedoutput from the media play point that is not pre-recorded or pre-playavailable need be run through a speech to text conversion, or through aheader addendum system as is discussed hereinabove. For example, onesuch feed no pre-play available would be the discussion engaged in bythe disc jockey with radio guests or between songs.

In an additional exemplary embodiment, indexing of the media play datafor searchability and sale-ability may be performed externally. Forexample, the hub may make necessary recordings, and may forward thetimes or circumstances of media plays and the media plays that occurredalong with the relevant audio recordings made to a third party, whichthird party may then associate header files or text conversions with thereceived information. For example, the third party might associatemetadata with each play signifying geographic areas, station names,names of disc jockeys, relevant key search terms, or other relevant datagained automatically, such as over the internet, with the received mediaplay file. Of course, in the example above, the same functions ofgenerating a header and/or metadata may not be handled by a third party,but may be handled at the radio station, at the media play point, or atthe hub.

There are numerous applications for the aspects of the present inventionas discussed immediately hereinabove. For example, based on the pre-playtracking of all media plays at the hub, certain non-playable content maybe stripped prior to playing at the media play point, but the samecontent may be made available via searching, or may be restricted fromavailability via searching. Furthermore, as mentioned above, the presentinvention need not be limited to radio stations. For example,independent parties may place certain media plays for availability, suchas on the World Wide Web. Such media plays, if made available to the huband if requested by a third party, would be indexed and made searchableas discussed with regard to the exemplary embodiments hereinabove. Forexample, certain independent singers might wish to enter a contestwherein singing recordings are made available to the hub as entrants tothe contest. The hub may then associate relevant key words, headers,Metadata, the audio of the media play, the text of the media play, orportions thereof with the media play submitted for the contest. Thereby,each independent media play submitted for the contest might be madeavailable to the search interface of FIG. 11, and thus users of theWorld Wide Web wishing to access those media plays, or prioritize thosemedia plays, might be able to do so. Such media plays, and theaccessing, searching, and consequent interest therein, may further betracked in accordance with the interfaces of FIGS. 9-11, and suchtracking for searches for particular media plays might allow for aprioritization of such media plays, with the highest priority of thosemedia plays being deemed the winner of the contest. Advertisers mightwish to enter advertising relevant to the particular contest, but mightwish to key particular advertising to particular participants of thecontest, and could do so in accordance with the interfaces of FIGS.9-11.

FIG. 12 is an architecture diagram of an Ad Management System 1200showing data passing between a data center 1204 and radio stations 1202in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The describedembodiment of the Ad Management System is designed to be able to serveads to several thousand radio stations and several hundred thousandcampaigns. Although the present invention is described in particulardetail in the context of terrestrial radio environments, it isrecognized that the present invention can also be used in, for example,satellite radio, internet streaming, podcasts, cellular telephone,videogames, and other contexts without departing from the principles ofembodiments of this invention.

In the described embodiment, each evening, the radio stations'automation software sends the station's play schedule for the followingday to Audio Ads. See numerals 1-5 in FIG. 12. In other embodiments, theplay schedule may come at varying times or at regular intervals orperiods other than evenings. This schedule will contain the spots thatAudio Ads is expected to fill. Audio Ads matches creative to these spotsand sends the revised schedule back to the radio station, to be playedby the station's automation software. See numerals 6-9 in FIG. 12.Periodically, for example each day, the station's automation softwareAudio Ads the actual schedule from the prior period or day, which can becompared against the expected schedule to determine if ads actuallyplayed. See numerals 10-12 of FIG. 12. As a final check, Audio AdsOn-Air Recording System listens to the actual station's broadcast ofselect stations and through audio fingerprinting techniques verifiesthat the ads were actually broadcast. See numerals 13 and 14 of FIG. 12.Play failures are fed back into the Audio Ads system for reporting toadvertisers. History has shown that roughly 15% of scheduled spots failto play, either because of technical failures or because the DJ “talkedover” the ad. This problem exists even outside of automation, so theindustry has developed a “make good” practice to adjust for playfailures, by playing the ad at a later, equivalent time.

In the described embodiment, the Ad Management system 1200 supportsthree models for buying available advertising slots: Guaranteed,reserved based on urgency, and Open (also called Auction).

Guaranteed campaigns (also referred to as Spot-Buy campaigns) arepromised specific spots on a specified station, date, and daypart. Inone embodiment, once the campaign books the spots, it will lose the spotonly via play failure or if the forecasted inventory is not published bythe station, not through preemption from another campaign booked throughthe system. Guaranteed campaigns can range in length anywhere up toseveral months in length, and can be booked up to several months inadvance. At times, advertisers place value on knowing that a particularspot will run at a particular time.

Guaranteed campaigns are not simply an inventory reservation, however,because of the way that the advertisers specify their campaigns. Forexample, they may not specify which stations and times to play on,instead they provide targeting criteria, such as the number oflisteners, listener demographics, the times of day to run, the marketsplay in, and so forth. Audio Ads then compares those criteria againstthe available inventory and presents a proposal for meeting thosecriteria. In one implementation, guaranteed campaigns specify a maximumCPM to pay. Each guaranteed campaign takes as much inventory as it needsto satisfy its campaign goals while keeping within its spending limitsand other user-specified criteria. If the advertiser is happy with thestation and time mix, then they approve the campaign and Audio Ads booksit. Specifying campaign goals, viewing the proposal, and finalizing orbooking the campaign are all done online through the Audio Ads frontend. In one embodiment, the system should take no more than a fewseconds (say, 10 seconds) to prepare a proposal once the criteria havebeen specified. The user must review the proposal and can book it withina few minutes. If the user waits too long to book the proposal, in oneimplementation, a new proposal will be generated to prevent staleness ofthe proposal in light of inventory changes.

In the reserved based on urgency model, campaigns can reserve inventoryas in the guaranteed model. However, campaigns with a higher urgencytake precedence over campaigns with lower urgency. In one embodiment,spots are presented to the campaign with the highest “urgency”. Eachspot is auctioned off in turn. In one embodiment, urgency is defined asbeing first in time to book, with one approach simply assigningearlier-booked campaigns the highest urgency.

Open campaigns play on inventory that has not been filled by guaranteedcampaigns and can be preempted by guaranteed campaigns. Open campaignsare booked according to desired demographics and market criteria and themaximum CPM the advertiser is willing to pay. In one implementation,inventory spots not filled by guaranteed campaigns are filled with opencampaigns at the last moment. In one embodiment, a system administratorcan set a percentage inventory to set aside for open campaigns that willnot be sold to guaranteed campaigns. Open campaigns compete amongthemselves for spots, with the “highest bidder” winning. The “bid” froman open campaign can be based on how well a spot meets the campaigngoals in addition to the CPM. Every campaign determines what the spot isworth in terms of the campaign's goals. For example, each campaignevaluates each spot according to the relevant target demographicinformation for the campaign and adjusts the bid according to thecampaign goals based on other criteria, such as time of day, market,etc. The auction process for open campaigns can be run at variousintervals, for example, hourly, several times a day, once a day, or atother intervals.

One factor that complicates the reservation process is that some of theinventory is not well known in advance. Since Audio Ads often onlyreceives the precise schedule, for example, one day in advance but spotscan be sold months in advance, it is possible that spots will be sold toa guaranteed campaign that ends up not being made available. Ads alsomay fail to play because of play failures. Audio Ads addresses the firstissue by forecast inventory, though the forecasting may not be precise.The second issue is addressed after the fact. Since it is a goal of thesystem to meet 100% of the guaranteed campaign requirements, Audio Adsmonitors guaranteed campaigns in progress and adds additional “makegood” spots whenever spots are lost or fail to play. In one embodimentthe user can enable or disable make goods.

The Audio Ads Inventory Management System (IMS) 1300 is responsible formatching advertising campaigns to available advertising spots on theradio stations or other broadcast technologies serviced. Campaigns areusually specified as a set of constraints or criteria that the campaignmust meet, such as markets the ad will play in, demographics it shouldreach, the number of listeners who should hear it, and the times of theday (dayparts) during which it should run. Radio stations typicallypublish the available spots one day in advance. In one embodiment, thisinventory is then matched to the campaigns to satisfy the maximum numberof campaigns. Since spots will be more valuable to some campaigns thanto others (for example, the demographics of a certain spot may match onecampaign but not another), it is desirable to optimize the allocation ofspots across multiple campaigns.

In one embodiment, inventory is known just one day in advance, butcampaigns generally are booked days, weeks, or months in advance.Campaigns are frequently timed to match external events such as sales ormovie releases, so predictability can be important. The Audio Ads IMS1300 deals with these competing factors by forecasting inventory.Currently, a simple exponential smoothing method is used to forecastinventory many months in advance. In other embodiments, the methodaccounts for trends or seasonality. Alternatively, different forecastingmodels are applied on a station by station basis.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing elements in scalable IMS (InventoryManagement System) 1300 used to schedule advertisements in a preferredembodiment of the present invention. The system 1300 places radio ads onselect radio stations, matching advertiser campaigns and creatives withavailable advertising spots on radio stations.

The External Interface 1304 provides external access to the system 1300through a UI 1302, examples of which are shown above in FIG. 9. UI 1302interacts with the rest of system 1300 to create and manage campaignsand for reporting. A Station Inventory Manager (SIM) 1314 manages allinventory for a single station. It maintains information about each spotsuch as whether it is an actual available spot or a forecast spot;whether it is available, reserved, or booked; the priority of thecampaign that booked it; when it was booked; who booked it; and soforth. A Forecaster 1316 is responsible for updating the inventory basedon the radio station schedule. It can provide exact information forupcoming spots or may forecast future spots based on past history. ACampaign Manager (CM) 1313 manages a single campaign, buying inventoryon behalf of the campaign to meet campaign goals, and buying newinventory if its existing inventory is lost or fails to play. On aregular basis, SIMs 1314 record their current allocations to persistentstorage. A Creative Assigner 1317 then assigns creatives to spots (usingthe allocations produced by the SIMs 1314) and produces the final playlist.

Each of the components in the diagram can be implemented as a separateprocess and could be allocated to its own machine. In other embodiments,however, for efficiency purposes, multiple SIMs will be grouped togetherin one task, and the Forecaster will be implemented as classes and runwithin the SIM's JVM (if the SIM is implemented in Java).

Components

An overview of each of the components of system 1300 is given below.

External Interface (Dispatcher) 1302

All external access to the system 1300 goes through the ExternalInterface. The External Interface provides methods for creating andmanaging campaigns and for examining inventory. Methods for creating andmanaging campaigns will be used by the Audio Ads front-end to providethe advertiser user interface. Methods for examining inventory will beused primarily by reporting tools.

Station Inventory Manager 1314

The Station Inventory Manager (SIM) manages all inventory for a singlestation. It maintains a list of all known spots for that station andautomatically allocates spots to particular campaigns. Since spots areforecasted, it is possible for a campaign to book a spot that laterdisappears from inventory. Whenever a booked spot is removed frominventory, the Campaign Manager that owns that spot will try to make upthe loss.

Each spot in the inventory has a priority which matches the priority ofthe campaign that allocated the spot. When a campaign requests spotsfrom the SIM, the SIM can allocate unassigned spots or spots with alower priority than the requesting campaign. In this way, each campaignhas a different view of available inventory that depends on the campaignpriority. This feature is intended to allow different campaign types,such as guaranteed campaigns (where specific spots are sold in advance)and open campaigns (where spots can be taken by someone willing to paymore). It also allows urgent, high priority campaigns to take inventoryfrom less important campaigns. If necessary to reduce memoryrequirements, inventory older than one day may be discarded.

Spots in the inventory have, among other attributes, a uniqueidentifier, a play date, a play time, a length, an accuracy (actual orforecast), a booking status (available, reserved, or booked), a priority(taken from the priority of the booking campaign), a booking date, and abooking campaign. These attributes are merely examples. In otherembodiments, spots in inventory may have a greater or lesser number ofattributes.

Spots can be reserved on a temporary basis by a campaign so that apotential buy can be displayed to a user for approval. If the spots arenot booked within the timeout period they will be returned to inventoryin the same state they were in before the reservation. A campaign mayonly book spots that it has previously reserved. In one implementation,reserved spots cannot be reserved or booked by campaigns at the same orlower priority than the owning campaign.

Campaigns do not query inventory but instead request to reserve or bookinventory. This avoids concurrency issues that would arise if a campaignrequests a view of inventory but that inventory is taken by anothercampaign before the first campaign can reserve it. All reservations andbookings are automatic so that a campaign can be guaranteed that spotsthat it has booked actually belong to it. Of course, campaigns with ahigher priority can still take that inventory from the booking campaign,which will need to book alternate spots to make up for the loss. Forreporting and recovery purposes, the SIM will support general queries ofexisting inventory, but such queries should be infrequent.

When a campaign requests spots, it should make a request such as“reserve N spots of this length on this day and in this daypart”. TheSIM will search its inventory and do the best it can to honor therequest while taking into account station rules such as maximum numberof spots assigned to a single campaign, no back-to-back spots assignedto a single campaign, and so forth. The SIM manages stitching issues bycoalescing adjacent shorter spots when possible and by preferentiallyfulfilling requests with stitched spots. For example, if a SIM has a60-second spot available, it may assign half of it to a 30-secondcampaign and then assign the second half to the very next 30-secondcampaign.

The following sequence of events takes place in response to requests:

On reserve:

matching spots are removed from inventory

the reservation is timed so that spots can be restored after the timeout

On book (only reserved spots can be booked):

the spots are allocated to the booking campaign

On release (either explicit or via timeout):

if the spot is currently booked: the spot is marked as available

if the spot is currently reserved: the spot is returned to itspre-reservation state

Campaign Manager 1313

The Campaign Manager manages a single campaign, buying inventory onbehalf of the campaign to meet campaign goals, and buying new inventoryif its existing inventory is lost or fails to play.

When a campaign is booked, a Campaign Manager is created for thatcampaign which then attempts to reserve (and subsequently book) theinventory that will fill the campaign goals. It queries the MetricsManager 1308 to learn of radio stations, AQH, CPM, etc., and determineswhich stations it should attempt to buy from. There will be an InventorySnapshot 1318 available to the Campaign Manager that holds a slightlystale view of inventory. This snapshot can be used to refine the initialinventory request. For example, a campaign may wish to spread itspurchases equally across markets and may need to know its chances ofgetting inventory in specific markets before finalizing the purchases.If any of its purchases are unsuccessful, the Campaign Manager willattempt to buy alternate spots until its goals are met.

As inventory changes due to higher priority campaigns taking inventoryor because of play failures, the Campaign Manager will learn of thesechanges. When inventory is lost the Campaign Manager must attempt to“make good” by buying alternate spots. The Campaign Manager will attemptto buy a spot that is roughly equivalent to the spot that was lost. Noother considerations will be taken when buying a “make-good” spot.

The Campaign Manager does not know the precise state of the inventorywhen it determines what buys to attempt. It should request N spots fromthe radio stations in its market within the days and dayparts that meetits criteria, while in one embodiment making a small number of largerequests rather than a large number of small requests. Some of thoserequests will succeed and others will fail or will be only partiallyfulfilled. Once the Campaign Manager knows the status of all itsrequests, it will determine if additional buy attempts are needed tomeet its goals. It may be possible that, to meet proper market ordaypart distribution, a Campaign Manager will want to return spots toinventory. This is allowed if the spots have been reserved but not yetbooked, and the returned spots will revert to their prior status.However, this mechanism is expected to be a small fraction of totalbuys.

A campaign can be paused, in which case no spots for that campaign willbe actually played (unless they have already been queued to thestation). The spots will not be returned to inventory unless thecampaign is cancelled. If spots from a paused campaign need to befilled, they will be auctioned off by the Auctioneer. When a campaign isresumed it should not lose any of its inventory, except what wasauctioned off because its play time has passed. The primary purpose forpausing a campaign would be to temporarily block a campaign because theaccount holder has not paid its bills. If the account is cancelled, allcampaigns for that account should be cancelled; if the account isreactivated, all paused campaigns should be resumed.

If a campaign is cancelled, the Campaign Manager should release itsentire inventory. The SIM provides functionality for releasing allinventory belonging to a specific campaign over a range of dates.

As described below in connection with FIGS. 15B and 16B, campaignmanager 1313 can bid in accordance with a criterion, including anexternal criterion.

Pricing Engine

In the above-described embodiment, campaign pricing is currentlydetermined on a campaign-by-campaign basis through negotiation with theadvertiser booking the campaign. This is especially true of nationwidecampaigns that buy guaranteed spots. In other embodiments, however,pricing is more dynamic and able to be set online or automatically whilebooking the campaign. In the embodiment of FIG. 12, the Campaign Manager1313 uses a Pricing Engine to determine the price of spots it buys. Theprice from the Pricing Engine is passed to the SIM, which uses it todetermine which campaigns to prefer when allocating inventory.

In one embodiment, the Pricing Engine associates each spot with a priceat which a Campaign Manager can reserve it as part of a guaranteedcampaign. In one implementation, the pricing set by the engine may varybased on buy type, buyer, and/or other factors.

In one embodiment, the Pricing Engine is part of the Campaign Manager.In other embodiments, the Pricing Engine is a component separate fromthe CM 1313.

Metrics Manager 1308

The Metrics Manager has the job of maintaining and providing stationmetrics for all stations supported by IMS 1300. The Campaign Manager canlearn all relevant information about potential inventory from theMetrics Manager. In some embodiments, IMS 1300 also contains a businesslayer that determines, for example, which stations are online, what astation's format is, and what a station's market is. In otherembodiments, these functions are also performed by the Metrics Manager.Metrics Manager also tells the Campaign Manager what demographics astation caters to, and what their listener numbers are. The CampaignManager 1313 accesses the Metrics Manager 1308 and business layer 1309to receive information. For example, the Campaign Manager can requestthe average listeners as reported by Arbitron for certain dayparts oncertain stations. Alternatively, data from other survey or researchcompanies can be used. The Campaign Manager can further request from theMetrics Manager 1308 data corresponding only to a specific demographicat which the campaign is targeted.

In one embodiment, the Metrics Manager 1308 holds all its data in adatabase In one implementation, the Metrics Manager supports variousmetrics for calculating the value of spots for particular campaigns onalternate research besides Arbitron.data. The Campaign Manager canindicate which research or metric type to use, and the Metrics Managerfinds and normalizes the data before returning the values.

Forecaster 1316

The Forecaster's primary responsibility is to predict and adjustinventory for a station. For efficiency purposes, the Forecaster may runin the same process as the SIM 1314.

At the end of each day or other period, as the station's schedule isconfirmed and the schedule performance for the prior day or periodbecomes known, the Forecaster should recalculate both known and expectedinventory for the coming days or periods. This forecast will add newspots to inventory, remove existing spots from inventory, or adjust theplay time of existing spots. If inventory is lost, the owning campaignis notified so that it can buy additional, “make-good” inventory. Notethat in one embodiment, when determining which spot to eliminate, thespot within the daypart with the lowest priority should be removed.

Inventory for the immediate future should be known precisely, whileinventory further in the future is be predicted. The accuracy of theprediction should be marked in the inventory and adjusted as the databecomes more precise. For example, spots for “tomorrow” might beaccurate to the minute, while spots for “next month” might be accurateonly to a daypart. In addition to accuracy, the forecaster also predictsthe reliability of the inventory, based on an analysis of prior stationperformance and the accuracy of the forecast. If a station frequentlyschedules inventory but then fails to play it, this will be reflected inthe reliability. Spot reliability may be used by the campaign buyer toevaluate the quality of the campaign.

When inventory is moved to more accurate times, it may be possible thatthe spots within a daypart can no longer be correctly allocated to allthe campaigns that have booked spots within that daypart. For example,it may become impossible to place two spots from the same campaignbecause they would play too close to each other. If this should happen,the Forecaster will need to take inventory from a campaign anddeallocate it. Campaign Managers are notified of any spots they lose.

In one embodiment, forecaster 1316 uses a Holt-Winters exponentialsmoothing method, which takes into account both trends and seasonality.The architecture supports applying different forecasting models on astation by station basis.

While the actual computation of the forecast is very fast, especiallywith exponential smoothing methods which can complete their computationwith the addition of just a single new number, updating the inventorycan be computationally expensive. The reason for this is that theForecaster must update existing inventory by adding new spots, removinglost spots, or adjusting the play time of existing spots. Therefore, inone embodiment, the Forecaster either maintains its own copy of allexisting inventory, or it queries the SIM to learn its inventory. Itthen calculates deltas from existing inventory to new inventory andapplies the changes. For these reasons it is expected that theForecaster will best be implemented in the same process as the SIM sothat expensive, large-payload process-to-process communication isavoided.

Since the inventory update process only adds, removes, or adjusts theplay time of inventory, it should be able to execute while the SIM isprocessing requests from the Campaign Managers. One time this would bean issue is if an update of an existing spot changes its daypart after acampaign has bought the spot but before the response has been sent,since the Campaign Manager would thus receive stale data which mightalter its goal calculations. To avoid this, changes to a spot's playtime (which occurs infrequently) should be synchronized with spotreservation.

Play Verifier 1319

At the end of each day the Play Verifier 1319 examines the play historyfor each station and determines if spots that were allocated failed toplay. The owning Campaign Manager is notified for each failure. In oneembodiment, Campaign Managers attempt to make good any play failures.

Creative Assigner 1317

When the final play list needs to be generated for a station, theCreative Assigner will read the persistent allocations written by theSIM(s), assign creatives to specific spots (allocations), and make theplay list available to the Audio Server. As described below inconnection with FIG. 16A, creative assigner 1317 can performcopysplitting in accordance with a criterion, such as an externalcriterion or a criterion based on effectiveness of previous plays.

Auctioneer 1306

The Auctioneer performs an auction on a regular basis when there arespots to be sold to open campaigns that have not be sold to guaranteedcampaigns. The number of campaigns competing for the spots canpotentially be quite large.

The method for performing the auction are as follows:

-   -   The Auctioneer opens bidding for unsold spots.    -   Open Campaign Managers that are interested in the station        examine the Inventory Snapshot to determine what spots may        potentially be bid upon.    -   Each Open Campaign Manager sends its bids to the Auctioneer.    -   The Auctioneer waits a reasonable amount of time for all bids to        come in. This interval should be short enough to ensure timely        completion of the auction but lengthy enough that normal latency        is accounted for.    -   The Auctioneer picks the winning bid and books the spot with the        SIM.    -   The Auctioneer notifies all winning Campaign Managers so that        they can update their campaign status.

In one embodiment, the auction is run on a scheduled basis. Bidding willremain open for a number of minutes determined via configuration, forexample about 10 minutes. Open Campaign Managers must examine theschedule and place bids in a timely manner. However, not all campaignsbid at the same time. In one embodiment, Open Campaign Managers willrandomize the times at which they will place bids, to reduce peakbandwidth requirements.

Since the auction is only taking place for unallocated spots within, forexample, one single day, the auction is expected to execute quickly.

Open Campaigns

While the above architecture will handle campaigns of all types andrequirements, the special requirements of Open Campaigns can cause arather large flood of inventory grabs and subsequent losses as higherpriority campaigns take those spots. Open Campaigns have market anddemographics requirements, but they are designed to take only inventorynot allocated to guaranteed campaigns.

Following the above architecture, an Open Campaign would grab allavailable inventory in its desired markets, up to its price cap. Thiscan be a large number of spots. Further, current business requirementsdemand that all Open Campaigns compete fairly for inventory, so as newOpen Campaigns book inventory, they must, on a random basis, bump otherOpen Campaigns from their spots. Finally, Open Campaigns have the lowestpriority of all campaigns, so as higher priority campaigns are booked,it is possible that the majority of spots they take will already beowned by an Open Campaign. Therefore, in these cases, a Campaign Managershould be notified.

These characteristics of Open Campaigns suggest that, for efficiencypurposes, they should be handled separately from other campaigns. Thatmechanism is described here.

Rather than reserving inventory when an Open Campaign is booked, OpenCampaigns will instead compete in an auction for unallocated spots justprior to the spots being published to the allocation list. It willtypically cover all unsold inventory for one single day, but thetimeframe can be more or less than one day.

The auction to fill spots runs before the SIM publishes its allocations.After the auction has run, allocations may be published. The CreativeAssigner then reads the published allocations, assigns creatives, andwrites the final play list. Any spots still left unfilled are deliveredto the Audio Server unallocated, which will typically result in, forexample, a Public Service Announcement being played in that spot. In oneembodiment, system 1300 sends more than one ad in the stream to thetarget (such as a radio station or podcast target). Both ads areinitially sent and at a later time, but before either of the ads isplayed, the system sends an indication of which ad should be played. Inanother embodiment, both ads are played, but the system 1300 sends anindication of their relative percentage of play time.

In one embodiment, system 1300 sends more than one ad in the stream tothe target, such as a radio station or podcast target. Both ads areinitially sent and at a later time, but before either of the ads isplayed, the system 1300 sends an indication of which ad should beplayed. In another embodiment, both ads are played, but the system 1300sends an indication of their relative percentage of play time.

FIG. 14 shows tables used in an embodiment of the invention. Theseinclude a campaign table 1402; and a campaign events target table 1404.These events can be feedback based events as described herein. FIG. 14further shows a campaign event target details table 1406 (one for eachcriterion); a campaign audio targeting table 1408, an audio targetingtimeblocks table 1410; a campaign event type table 1412; an audiotargeting formats table 1414; an arb_formats table 1416; an audiotargeting markets table 1418; a timeblocks table 1420, and anarb_markets table 1422.

The tables supporting use of feedback include the campaign event targetdetails table 1406, which can occur for each criterion set by theadvertiser. These criteria can relate to creative placement (i.e.,copysplitting), in which case the system references the campaign audiotargeting table 1408. These criteria can also relate to the campaign andwhere and when it places ads, in which case, the system references thecampaigns table 1402.

All campaign events have a campaign event type ID 1412, which includes aname, description, threshold description, and an upper and lower limit,which are preferably used for error checking. Assume, for example, theadvertiser specifies “if the pollen count is above W use a CPM of X andabove Y use a CPM of Z. In this example, there would be two instances ofan event 1406: one for a pollen count of W and one for a pollen count ofZ. Each event 1406 includes an event type ID 1454 (i.e., pollen count,temperature, sports scores, etc) as discussed above. It also contains atargeting ID 1456 which specifies whether it is related to creatives orcampaigns. It also contains a threshold type flag 1458, which specifieswhether the criterion depends on a value being greater than, lesserthan, equal to, or some other measurement, as discussed above. Here, thethreshold type flags would be indicates “greater than.” It also containsa threshold value 1460. Here, the values for the first event would be Wand for the second event would be Y. If the criterion relates to using aspecific CPM if a criterion is met, the table 1406 contains a CPM value1462. Here the first event would have a CPM of X and the second eventwould have a criterion of Z. If the events are campaign based (as inthis example), they are used to help schedule campaigns as discussedfurther below.

If the event is creative based, it is not used for scheduling, but todecide which creative to play in a particular spot. Table 1408 containsa campaign ID 1463, a file ID 1464, which identifies the specificcreative that will play if the criterion is met (and the rule/eventcontaining the criterion is not trumped by another rule), and a weight1466. In this embodiment, the weight denotes a percentage of total timethat the creative is to play in a particular spot.

FIG. 15A is a flow chart showing 1560 a method used by Campaign Manager1313. This flow chart shows actions performed by CM 1313 and otherelements of system 1300 to determine effective slots in which to placeads in accordance with an advertiser-entered criterion in a guaranteedcampaign. In element 1563, CM 1313 receives from an advertiser at leastone criterion for using different creatives. In element 1561, CM 1313receives from an advertiser demographics for the campaign. For example,the advertiser may specify that the campaign is directed toward adultsage 18-24. In element 1562, CM 1313 receives a station format from theadvertiser (for example, light rock). In element 1567, CM 1313 receivesa daypart from the advertiser (such as morning drive time). The order ofat least elements 1563-1567 can change in other embodiments. Otherembodiments can receive other information from advertisers that mayaffect play of advertising or other creatives. The front endcommunicates 1596 with a business layer to identify a list of stationsthat fit the user's specifications (which can include formats, etc.).This information is passed to the CM with other user inputs. In element1566, CM 1313 knows what spots are available from the SIMs inventory. CM1313 communicates with the Metrics Manager to find relevant demographicand other data for those slots. The CM requests price information forthe slots from the SIMs. In element 1564, CM 1313 calculates CPM inaccordance with a price and a number of listeners in slot.CPM=price for slot/#1000 listeners for slot

In element 1565, CM 1313 uses the calculated CPM to determine theestimated efficacy of the slot based on the campaign criteria. Inelement 1568, CM 1313 requests or reserves from the SIM 1314 the mosteffective slots. In element 1569, Creative Assigner decides whichcreative to play in a requested slot. An example of this element isshown in FIG. 16A.

FIG. 15B is a flow chart 1570 showing a method used by Campaign Manager1313. This flow chart shows actions performed by CM 1313 to determineeffective slots in which to place ads in accordance with anadvertiser-entered criterion in an Open campaign.

In element 1571, CM 1313 receives from an advertiser demographics forthe campaign. For example, the advertiser may specify that the campaignis directed toward adults age 18-24. In element 1572, CM 1313 receives astation format from the advertiser (for example, light rock). In element1577, CM 1313 receives a daypart from the advertiser (such as morningdrive time). The order of at least elements 1571-1577 can change inother embodiments. Other embodiments can receive other information fromadvertisers that may affect placement of advertising or other creatives.In element 1573, CM 1313 receives a fixed CPM value from the advertiser.As shown in FIG. 9N, the advertiser may enter alternative CPMs and acriterion (such as a value for pollen count). In element 1576, the CM1313 gets inventory list from the SIMs and a station list that matches(for example) the specified format(s) from the front-end. In element1574, the CM 1313 communicates with SIMs to find available spots andtheir price and communicates with Metrics Manager 1308 to find a numberof listeners in the target demographic and possibly other data for thoseslots. In element 1580, CM 1313 checks information relevant to thecriterion to determine which CPM to use (i.e., it checks the receivedinformation against the criterion). In element 1575, CM 1313 calculatesa maximum price that it would bid in accordance with a price and anumber of listeners in slot.Max price for slot=#1000 listeners for slot×CPM

In element 1578, CM 1313 uses the calculated max price to communicatewith SIM 1314 to bid on spots. In element 1579, Creative Assignerdecides which creative to play in a slot resulting from the auction. Anexample of this element is shown in FIG. 16A.

FIG. 16A is a flow chart 1600 showing a copysplitting method used byCampaign Manager 1313 that depend on a criterion, such as an externalcriterion. This flow chart implements the criterion described by theuser in FIG. 9M. In the described embodiment, this method is performedby Creative Assigner 1317. In other embodiments, the method could beperformed by other appropriate portions of the system or apportionedbetween more than one part of the system

Note that, in one embodiment, the method of FIG. 16A is performed bothfor open campaigns and for guaranteed campaigns 1601. If a criterion ismet 1604 (for example if the pollen count is a specified value), then afirst creative is scheduled in such a way that it plays for a firstpercentage of time, while a second creative is scheduled so that itplays for a second percentage of time. This is known as copy-splitting,although here, the percentage of the copy-splitting is dependent on theevaluated criterion.

The criterion can be an external criterion, as discussed above, such aspollen count, weather, and so on. In some embodiments, multiple criteriacan be specified. In these cases, the advertiser can set the order ofpriority for overlapping or conflicting rules.

FIG. 16B is a flowchart 1650 showing a method of a bidding rule used bythe campaign manager 1313 in accordance with a criterion, such as anexternal criterion. Note that, in one embodiment, the method of FIG. 16Bis performed for open campaigns 1651. It will be understood that thisbidding rule is only one of a plurality of rules used to schedulecreatives. The plurality of rules can be overlapping. In one embodiment,an advertiser can rank the rules to indicate which is followed if thereis conflict. This flow chart implements the criterion described by theuser in FIG. 9N. In the described embodiment, this method is performedby Campaign Manager 1313. In other embodiments, the method could beperformed by other appropriate portions of the system or apportionedbetween more than one part of the system.

If a criterion is met 1654, then the CM 1313 uses a first CPM tocalculate a first max bid price. Otherwise 1658, it uses a second CPM tocalculate a second max bid amount. Some embodiments employ multipleconditional bids that may conflict and overlap. The user can specify thepriority of those conditional rules. Some embodiments allow multiplecriteria in a single rule (i.e., both criteria must be met for the ruleto be satisfied).

FIG. 17A shows an example 1700 of using feedback from previous plays ofan ad spot. In this example, the advertiser is paying based on CPI (costper inquiry) and using an open (auction) method. The system receives1704 a CPI that the advertiser is willing to pay and a maximum budgetfor the campaign, along with other campaign goals. Budgets may be byday, week, month, or other specified time periods. If the campaign is ahybrid campaign, then the advertiser also specifies a minimum CPM value(input B of element 1704). The system determines initial slots for thecampaign. This may be accomplished by simply allocating a percentage ofopen slots to first-time campaigns with no bidding needed, or by humanbeings or the system estimating a starting CPM based on historicalknowledge about the advertiser or on knowledge of the field. Then, thesystem waits for a period of time (such as an hour, a day, a week orsome other time period) while the spot initially plays inadvertiser-selected markets 1706. While the spot is having initial play,a third party system and/or a portion of system 1300 (not shown)collects data about the effectiveness of the spot in its various timesand markets.

For example, the spot may have played in Houston and San Antonio atroughly the same days, time, and number of plays. The system generates1712 an effective CPM using, for example, one of formulas A or B, foreach station and daypart. Effective CPM could also be determined forother attributes such as each creative, each format, each audiencedemographic, and so on. If the collected feedback data indicates thatthe Houston spot generated 4 inquiries and the San Antonio spotgenerated 2 inquiries for a particular daypart, the cost per inquirythat the advertiser has agreed to pay is $10, and the two stations haveroughly the same number of listeners (e.g., one thousand) then the CPMsfor that daypart are (using calculation A in element 1712):Houston effective CPM=40×$10/#1000 listeners in daypart=4×10/1=$40San Antonio effective CPM=20×$10/# 1000 listeners in daypart=2×10/1=$20

In a hybrid system using a min CPM of $30, the cost would be:Houston effective CPM=greater of (30, (4×$10/1)=$40San Antonio effective CPM=greater of (30, (2×$10/1)=$30

The system will bid the effective CPM in each relevant station anddaypart auction 1718. This method is repeated periodically 1720 tofine-tune the advertiser's bidding.

FIG. 17B shows another example 1750 of using feedback from previousplays of an ad spot. In this example, the advertiser is paying based onCPM (cost per thousand listeners). The system receives 1754 a CPM thatthe advertiser is willing to pay and a maximum budget for the campaign,along with other campaign goals. Budgets may be by day, week, month, orother specified time periods. Then, the system waits for a period oftime (such as an hour, a day, a week or some other time period) whilethe spot initially plays in advertiser-selected markets. While the spotis having initial play, a third party system and/or a portion of system1300 (not shown) collects data about the effectiveness of the spot inits various times and markets.

For example, the spot may have played in Houston and San Antonio atroughly the same days, time, and number of plays. The system generates1762 a cost per targeted response (“CTR”) cost per call for eachcreative, station and daypart. Effective CTR could also be determinedfor other attributes such as each format, each audience demographic, andso on. If the collected feedback data indicates that the Houston spotgenerated 4 inquiries and the San Antonio spot generated 2 inquiries fora particular daypart, and the cost of the spots are each $100:Houston CTR=$100/4=$25San Antonio CTR=$100/2=$50

The system will determine 1768 which station/daypart(s)/creativeminimizes cost per targeted response, taking campaign goals into accountand without exceeding max dollars. The system (or the system with theadvertiser's approval) will then change 1769 the percentage of the totalbudget (or total amount) spent on most effective station/dayparts(s). Insome embodiments, instead of or in addition to changing the budgetallocation, the system may change the percentage of play of creatives toplay effective creatives more often. This method is repeatedperiodically to fine-tune the advertiser's spending (not shown).

The present invention has been described in particular detail withrespect to several possible embodiments. Those of skill in the art willappreciate that the invention may be practiced in other embodiments.First, the particular naming of the components, capitalization of terms,the attributes, data structures, or any other programming or structuralaspect is not mandatory or significant, and the mechanisms thatimplement the invention or its features may have different names,formats, or protocols. Further, the system may be implemented via acombination of hardware and software, as described, or entirely inhardware elements. Also, the particular division of functionalitybetween the various system components described herein is merelyexemplary, and not mandatory; functions performed by a single systemcomponent may instead be performed by multiple components, and functionsperformed by multiple components may instead performed by a singlecomponent.

Some portions of above description present the features of the presentinvention in terms of methods and symbolic representations of operationson information. These descriptions and representations are the meansused by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectivelyconvey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. Theseoperations, while described functionally or logically, are understood tobe implemented by computer programs. Furthermore, it has also provenconvenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operations asmodules or by functional names, without loss of generality.

Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the abovediscussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description,discussions utilizing terms such as “determining” or “displaying” or thelike, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similarelectronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computersystem memories or registers or other such information storage,transmission or display devices.

Certain aspects of the present invention include process steps andinstructions described herein in the form of a method. It should benoted that the process steps and instructions of the present inventioncould be embodied in software, firmware or hardware, and when embodiedin software, could be downloaded to reside on and be operated fromdifferent platforms used by real time network operating systems.

The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored on acomputer readable medium that can be accessed by the computer. Such acomputer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium,such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks,optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories(ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic oroptical cards, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or anytype of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and eachcoupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore, the computers referred toin the specification may include a single processor or may bearchitectures employing multiple processor designs for increasedcomputing capability.

The methods and operations presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purposesystems may also be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will be apparent to those of skill inthe, along with equivalent variations. In addition, the presentinvention is not described with reference to any particular programminglanguage. It is appreciated that a variety of programming languages maybe used to implement the teachings of the present invention as describedherein, and any references to specific languages are provided forinvention of enablement and best mode of the present invention.

The present invention is well suited to a wide variety of computernetwork systems over numerous topologies. Within this field, theconfiguration and management of large networks comprise storage devicesand computers that are communicatively coupled to dissimilar computersand storage devices over a network, such as the Internet, publicnetworks, private networks, or other networks enabling communicationbetween computing systems.

Finally, it should be noted that the language used in the specificationhas been principally selected for readability and instructionalpurposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribethe inventive subject matter. Accordingly, the disclosure of the presentinvention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scopeof the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

1. A computer-implemented method for managing an advertising campaign,the method comprising: receiving a set of criteria for scheduling aplurality of plays of an advertisement, the criteria comprising at leastone selected from a group consisting of broadcast station, time, andcost; receiving an indication of unsold advertising slots across aplurality of broadcast stations, each slot having an associatedbroadcast station, time, and cost; and responsive to an unsoldadvertising slot meeting the set of criteria, reserving the slot for oneof the plurality of plays of the advertisement.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the set of criteria comprises broadcast station, time, andcost.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of broadcaststations have different audience demographics.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the plurality of broadcast stations broadcast to differentgeographic markets.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising buyingthe slot for one of the plurality of plays of the advertisement.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of unsold advertisingslots occurs on a day, and the unsold advertising slots are slots forthe next day.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indicationof unsold advertising slots occurs on a day, and the unsold advertisingslots are slots for later the same day.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the set of criteria further comprises demographiccharacteristics of a target audience for the advertisement.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, further comprising receiving an indication ofaudience demographic characteristics for each unsold advertising slot.10. The method of claim 1, wherein the unsold advertising slots compriseslots during terrestrial radio broadcasts.
 11. The method of claim 1,wherein the unsold advertising slots comprise slots during satelliteradio broadcasts.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the unsoldadvertising slots comprise slots during podcasts.
 13. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the unsold advertising slots comprise slots duringtransmissions over the internet.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein theunsold advertising slots comprise slots during transmissions to mobilephones.
 15. A computer-implemented method for managing an advertisingcampaign, the method comprising: receiving a set of criteria forscheduling a plurality of plays of an advertisement, the criteriacomprising a cost and at least one selected from a group of additionalcriteria consisting of broadcast station, time, and a demographiccharacteristic of a target audience; receiving an indication of unsoldadvertising slots across a plurality of broadcast stations, each slothaving an associated broadcast station and time; and responsive to anunsold advertising slot meeting the additional criteria, bidding for theunsold adverting slot in accordance with the cost criteria.
 16. Themethod of claim 15, wherein the additional criteria comprises broadcaststation and time.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality ofbroadcast stations have different audience demographics.
 18. The methodof claim 15, wherein the plurality of broadcast stations broadcast todifferent geographic markets.
 19. The method of claim 15, whereinreceiving an indication of unsold advertising slots occurs on a day, andthe unsold advertising slots are slots for the next day.
 20. The methodof claim 15, wherein receiving an indication of unsold advertising slotsoccurs on a day, and the unsold advertising slots are slots for laterthe same day.
 21. The method of claim 15, further comprising receivingan indication of audience demographic characteristics for each unsoldadvertising slot.
 22. The method of claim 21, wherein the additionalcriteria comprises a demographic characteristic of a target audience.23. A computer-implemented method of managing a radio advertisingcampaign across a plurality of broadcast stations, the methodcomprising: receiving a set of target audience characteristics and abudget constraint for scheduling a plurality of radio advertisements;receiving an indication of unsold radio advertising slots across theplurality of broadcast stations, each slot having audiencecharacteristics and a cost; and responsive to the audiencecharacteristics of an unsold radio advertising slot meeting the targetaudience characteristics and the cost meeting the budget constraint,buying the slot for one of the plurality of plays of the advertisement.24. The method of claim 23, wherein receiving an indication of unsoldradio advertising slots occurs on a day, and the unsold radioadvertising slots are slots for the next day.
 25. The method of claim23, wherein receiving an indication of unsold radio advertising slotsoccurs on a day, and the unsold radio advertising slots are slots forlater the same day.
 26. A computer program product for managing anadvertising campaign, the computer program product stored on a computerreadable medium and adapted to perform the operations of: receiving aset of criteria for scheduling a plurality of plays of an advertisement,the criteria comprising at least one selected from a group consisting ofbroadcast station, time, and cost; receiving an indication of unsoldadvertising slots across a plurality of broadcast stations, each slothaving an associated broadcast station, time, and cost; and responsiveto an unsold advertising slot meeting the set of criteria, reserving theslot for one of the plurality of plays of the advertisement.
 27. Acomputer program product for managing an advertising campaign, thecomputer program product stored on a computer readable medium andadapted to perform the operations of: receiving a set of criteria forscheduling a plurality of plays of an advertisement, the criteriacomprising a cost and at least one selected from a group of additionalcriteria consisting of broadcast station, time, and a demographiccharacteristic of a target audience; receiving an indication of unsoldadvertising slots across a plurality of broadcast stations, each slothaving an associated broadcast station and time; and responsive to anunsold advertising slot meeting the additional criteria, bidding for theunsold adverting slot in accordance with the cost criteria.